
Glass _____ 
Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



IDAHO 



A Complete and Comprehensive Description 



OF THE 



Agricultural, Stock Raising 

AND 

MINERAL RESOURCES 

OF IDAHO ; 

Also, Statistics in Regard to its Climate, Etc. 

COMPILED FROM THE LATEST REPORTS OF 1888. 



Presented with the Compliments op the 

Passenger Department, 




SECOND EDITION, 

Revised and Enlarged. 






THE 



RESOURCES AND ATTRACTIONS 



OF 



IDAHO 



r ACTS ON FARMING, STOCK RAISING, MINING, LUMBERING, AND OTHER INDUSTRIES, 

AND NOTES ON CLIMATE, SCENERY, GAME, FISH, AND 

HEALTH AND PLEASURE RESORTS. 



WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF THE 



PASSENGER DEPARTMENT 





Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. 



CHICAGO : 

v 
Rand, McNally & Co., Printers, 

1889. 



n< 






A COMPLETE AND COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE AGRICULTURAL, STOCK- 
RAISING AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF IDAHO; ALSO STATISTICS 
IN REGARD TO ITS CLIMATE, ETC., COMPILED FROM THE 
LATEST REPORTS OF 1888. 



SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED. 



The Passenger Department of the Union Pacific Railway is indebted to Mr. ROBT. E. STRAHORN, 
of Hailty, Idaho, for the preparation of much of the original matter contained in these pages. 



► 



OMAHA, MARCH 1, 1889. 



Copyright, 1889, by E. L. LOMAX, General Passenger Agent, 
Union Pacific Railway, Omaha, Neb. 






AN OUTLINE 



Idaho is imperial in extent. Its area is greater than that of New York, 
INew Jersey, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire combined. 

Its climate is proved by official reports of leading nations to be the 
healthiest in the world. 

Its arable belts enjoy the influence of the warm currents of the Pacific, 
.and are of grand proportions, and unexcelled for productiveness. 

Its mineral fields are among the largest in the world, and they have pro- 
duced, and are now producing, the richest ores known in the history of 
mining. 

It contains a diversity of other resources not surpassed by any region of 
similar extent in our Union. 

It is now rendered easily accessible by the Union Pacific Railway and its 
branches, and possesses water communications with the Pacific Ocean. 
These avenues insure the producer every facility for transportation, and the 
settler of the immediate future a very rapid increase in the value of his 
possessions, whatever they may be. 

With such a vast extent of public domain unoccupied, and presenting 
opportunities no more to be enjoyed in the East or "Middle West," for 
acquiring homes and wealth, Idaho also possesses many of the religious, 
educational, and social advantages of those localities. 



(3) 



CONTENTS. 



Location, Area, and Physical Features. — An Empire of Mineral, 
Farming, Grazing, and Forest Lands — Lake Area — Principal Mount- 
ain Ranges and Beautiful Alternating Valleys — The Snake River 
Lava Belt 7 

Climatology and Health. — Latitude and Oceanic Influences Similar 
to Those of the Garden-Spots of Europe — Comparisons of Tempera- 
ture with Eastern States — A Land of Perfect Sunshine — The 
Healthiest Region in the World 8 

Rivers, Watercourses, and Springs.— Swift, Noble Rivers, Abound- 
ing in Magnificent Scenes, in all Sections — Myriads of Cold Springs, 
Large and Small — Illimitable Power and Bounteous Supply of Water 
for Irrigation 13 

Timber. — Varieties of Trees and Product Per Square Mile of the Dif- 
ferent Forests — Timber Convenient to all Sections 14 

The Soil of Idaho. — Great Variety and Excellence of Soils — Valley, 

Plain, and Mountain Soils — Effects of Irrigation on the Soils 15 

Diversity of Idaho Agriculture, — From Cotton and Tobacco in the 
Low-Lands to Hardy Vegetables in the Mountain Valleys — The 
Science and Advantages of Irrigation — Idaho Excels all States and 
Territories in Average Yield of Wheat, Rye, Oats, Barley, Potatoes, 
and Corn — Hay, Fruits, and Vegetables the Most Profitable Crops 16 

Experiences of Farmers.— Old Settlers in Numerous Valleys Sing 
the Praises of Idaho — The Best Markets in the World — Large 
Profits on Fruits, Alfalfa, and Other Products — Many Sample Yields. 19 

Fruit Culture. — Large Orchards of Boise Valley — A Wonderful Apple 
and Peach Country, and a Very Eden for Plums and Prunes — Idaho 
Orchards Supply Surrounding Territories — Details of Producing and 
Marketing Fruit 24 

Stock Raising.— The Land of Bunch-Grass and White Sage— Unlimited 
Area of Summer Pasturage — The Industry as Now Conducted in 
Various Sections — Fast Stock Trains of the Union Pacific — Experiences 
of Leading Stock Men 27 

Wool Growing.— More Profitable than Any Other Branch of Stock 
Raising — The Rapid Rise of Some Poor Herders — Natural Habitat of 
the Sheep — Weight of Fleeces and their Rapid Improvement — Wool 
and Mutton Product in 1888 31 

Dairying. — Better Openings for Dairymen than in Anything Else — The 
Cattle King Buys His Butter and Condensed Milk — Large Imports of 
Butter and Cheese to the Best Dairying Region in the World — Free 

Locations in Hundreds of Mountain Parks and Glens 32 

'(5) 



6 CONTENTS. 

Government Lands.— Description of Government Lands in Various 
Parts of the Territory— Extent of all the Prominent Valleys- 
Adaptation of Certain Crops to Each Particular Region — The Different 
Land Districts and Amount of Arable Lands in Each 33 

How to Obtain Government Land. — The Preemption, Homestead, 

Timber Culture, and Desert Land Acts 39 

Railways. — The Union Pacific and Various Branches Render all Promi- 
nent Districts Easily Accessible— The Superb River and Valley 
System Renders Railway Extension to the Most Remote Sections 
Easy — Stage and Wagon Roads 40 

Manufacturing. — A Grand New Field for Many Enterprises — Water- 
Power at Every Turn — Inexhaustible Quantities of Iron, Coal, Cop- 
per, and Other Minerals, with Wool, Hides, Wheat, Timber, and 
Other Raw Materials in Abundance 42; 

Educational Advantages. — Rapid Development of Public Schools — 
Liberal School Laws — Superb Public School Buildings — Teachers' 
Salaries 4£ 

Precious Metals. — Most Extensive and Richest Metal Belt Ever Dis- 
covered — Some World-Famous Mines — Wood River District — Salmon 
River — Rocky Bar and Atlanta — The Owyhee Country — Boise Basin, 
Cceur d' Alene, and Other Districts — Yield of Mines for 1888 44 

Useful Minerals, Etc. — Iron, Coal, Copper, Lead, Cinnabar, and 
Salt — Abundance of Marble, Granite, Building Stone, Brick Clay, 
Mica, Potter's Clay, and Other Useful Products of Mother Earth 64. 

Fishing and Hunting. — Idaho, the Earthly Paradise of the Sportsman — 
Trout, Salmon, and the Famous Red Fish — The Various Species of 
Bear, Deer, Elk, Antelope, Etc., Geese, Ducks, Chickens, Grouse, 
and Other Small Game — Best Points for Rendezvous 67 

Pleasure and Health Resorts.— For These No Region Compares 
with Idaho — Enchanting Beauty of Many Alpine Lakes — The Glory 
of Wondrous Cataracts, Purity of the Air, and the Efficacy of 
Medicinal Waters — Soda Springs, Shoshone Fails, Hailey Hot Springs, 
and Other Grand Resorts — Saw Tooth, Payette, and Numerous Other 
Lakes 68 

Outline of Counties. — Brief Description of Every County in the Ter- 
ritory — Location, Area, Resources, and Leading Characteristics of 
Each 7& 

Wealth and Population. — Rapid Progress of Idaho — Population of 

Each County — Various Developments in a Nut-Shell 81. 

Miscellaneous. — Business Opportunities— Openings for Capital— Employ- 
ment and Wages — Living Expenses, Etc. — Prices of Farm Implements 
and Animals 81 



IDAHO TERRITORY. 



LOCATION, AREA, AND PHYSICAL FEATURES. 

Idaho extends from 42° to 49° of latitude, has the British Possessions 
on the north, Montana and Wyoming on the east, Utah and Nevada on 
the south, and Oregon and Washington on the west. The length of the 
Territory is 410 miles, and its width, from 257 miles in the extreme south, to 
60 miles at its northern limit. Its area is 55,228,160 acres. Of this, 18,400,- 
000 acres are classed as mountainous, 15,000,000 acres agricultural lands, 
7,000,000 acres forests, 25,000,000 acres grazing lands, and some 600,000 acres 
lakes. Its vast mineral belts are included in the mountain area, as are also 
most of its forests. 

Stretching along its eastern edge, and separating Idaho from Montana and 
Wyoming, are the rugged mountains of the Bitter Root, Rocky and Wahsatch 
Ranges, the Bitter Root occupying the northern, the Rocky the central, and 
the Wahsatch the southern links in this boundary. The "spurs" of these 
ranges, especially of the Wahsatch, extend well over into Idaho, and they con- 
tain some of the Territory's best mineral belts. Their highest peaks reach 
altitudes ranging from 9,000 to 13,000 feet. On the south and southwest are 
the Owyhee Mountains, which form an important link in the great divide 
between the waters of the Columbia and those of the Humboldt. The Saw- 
tooth, Salmon River, Wood River, and Boise are among the prominent mount- 
ain ranges in Central Idaho. On the west, are the Blue Mountains of Oregon 
and Washington. Idaho is, therefore, practically mountain-locked, although 
from the south, southeast and west there are numerous depressions through 
which railway and wagon-roads find easy, natural access. The interior of the 
Territory is a vast plateau, varying in altitude from 600 feet above the sea in 
its lowest valleys, to 10,000 on the tops of its highest peaks. The average ele- 
vation is from 2,000 to 3,000 feet leas than that of Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, 
or Colorado. Its numerous mountain ranges run in a variety of directions, the 
trend of the principal ones, however, being southeast to northwest. In these 
interior ranges are the mineral belts which first attracted general attention to 
the Territory. • - 

Alternating and nestling among the mountain ranges are many valleys, large 
and small, affording in the aggregate a vast area of agricultural lands not 
exceeded in fertility by any in the world. Through these meander a river, 
system well worthy of the extended notice which is given in succeeding pages. 

(7) 



8 IDAHO. 

The arable portions of the valleys lie from 600 to 6,000 feet above the sea, and 
they range in size from one to twenty miles in width, and from twenty to one 
hundred miles in length. 

Traversing Southern Idaho is the extensive volcanic belt on the basin of 
Snake River. This basin stretches far into neighboring Territories, being 800 
miles in length. In Idaho it averages about fifty miles in width. Some of the 
best valleys traverse it, but it is more noteworthy as the great winter gracing 
region of this and adjacent Territories. Its nutritious herbs and grasses fatten 
thousands of cattle and sheep annually. 

CLIMATOLOGY AND HEALTH. 

Idaho is in the same latitude as France, Switzerland, and portions of Italy, 
Spain, and Portugal. It is subject to oceanic influences very similar to those 
countries, and necessarily has a somewhat similar climate. All this region is 
near enough to the Pacific Ocean to be very noticeably affected by its currents. 
By reference to any map whereon these ocean currents are shown, it will be 
seen that the great Japan current (Kuro Siwa) — that mighty stream of warm 
water — bears directly against the western shores of America. The temperature 
of the winds blowing over it is, of course, affected by its heat, and they carry 
their modifying influences inland hundreds of miles, even extending their 
genial influences upon the climate of Montana. Cast your eyes over a climatic 
map exhibiting the extreme northern line of wheat production, for instance, 
and you will find that, while on the eastern shore it touches near the mouth of 
the St. Lawrence at latitude 50°, it runs in the northwest nearly 1,000 miles 
north of the most northerly part of Idaho. 

The average or mean annual temperature at Lewiston, in Northern Idaho, is 
56°, a milder showing by five degrees than is made by Ohio, milder by ten 
degrees than Iowa, and milder by twelve degrees than Maine and New Hamp- 
shire. Boise City, in Western Central Idaho, with a much greater altitude 
than Lewiston, has an average temperature of 51°, the same as Ohio, and four 
degrees warmer than Connecticut. The rain and snow fall at Lewiston is 
about twenty-four inches; at Boise City about half that amount. At Boise 
City the lowest record during seven consecutive winters was 12° below zero in 
January, and the highest 108° in July. Barnet E. Light, signal officer, reports 
that mercury sank below zero only four times during one period of five years. 
The coldest weather, recorded in twenty years was the exceptional January, 
1888, when mercury sank to 27° below zero. The prevailing winds are south- 
southwest, averaging twelve miles an hour, and never exceeding thirty. 

While Boise City is a fair representative, in the matter of climate, of the 
various agricultural sections, it should be borne in mind that the much more 
elevated mining districts have winters as harsh, in most ways, as any of the 
regions of the Allegheny or Blue Ridge Mountains. Our best authorities on 
climatology, however, agree that in the dry, rarefied atmosphere of Idaho, and 
the mountainous regions adjoining on the east, there is a difference of about 
twenty degrees in the intensity of the heat or cold in favor of those regions, 
when compared with the same temperature in the raw and humid atmosphere 
of the Atlantic Coast region. In other words, a temperature of 105° in Idaho 



IDAHO. 9 

is only equal in its effects upon the system to one of 85° at Boston or New 
York; or the extreme cold temperature of Boise City of 12° below zero, is as 
easily endured as that of 8° above at any point in the Eastern States. Refer- 
ring to this peculiarity of the Idaho climate Hon. E. A. Stevenson, Governor of 
the Territory, says: 

"The lowest temperature in the history of the Boise Signal Station was 
— 27.8°, on January 16, 1888. At this time the signal officer regularly walked 
from his office to his residence and back without an overcoat, and he noticed 
many other men on the streets without overcoats. Such habits are very possi- 
ble in the exceptionally fine climate of Idaho. This occurred during the 
twenty days when a thousand persons froze to death between the Rocky 
Mountains and the Mississippi River. Rarely ever does the temperature fall to 
zero. This highly oxygenated atmosphere is specially adapted to the cure of 
catarrh, consumption, and many diseases in which a cure depends upon a puri- 
fication of the blood. At this date, October 9th, there has been no frost. The 
most tender vines and flowers are as vigorous and fresh as in the spring." 

Sunstrokes and hydrophobia are never known in Idaho, and although open- 
air work is carried on every day in winter, and an important proportion of the 
population live among the mines and on the stock ranges, in the rudest kind 
■of shelter, the year round, a case of severe freezing as a result of such exposure 
is never heard of. The sky is usually free from clouds, and sunshiny days are 
the rule. Idaho averages 260 days of perfect sunshine per year, and 300 fair 
■days, as against 191 fair days in Boston, and 170 at Buffalo and Chicago. Of 
600 cyclones recently reported by the United States Signal Service as occurring 
during a long series of years, not one was reported in Idaho. Floods or other 
storms destructive of life and property are almost unknown in the history of 
this region. During harvest time there is rarely any rainfall; in fact such a 
catastrophe as loss -of crops from drouth or flood would be considered phenome- 
nal. The absence of showers is not felt, because of the beneficial distribution 
of lands and streams suitable for irrigation. There is rarely enough snow for 
sleighing in the valleys, although it is abundant in the mountains. 

The influence of climate upon agriculture, stock raising, or mere personal 
comfort is very important, but its effect upon the health is paramount to every 
other consideration. Statistics prove Idaho the healthiest country in the world. 
A. careful study of the official reports which follow is better than the reading 
of volumes of glittering generalities so often put forth in the interest of the 
many noted health resorts. The figures prove beyond question the truth of the 
above claim as to Idaho's healthfulness. 



10 



IDAHO. 



According to the mortality statistics, taken in connection with our National 
census, the death rate in Idaho is less than in any other State or Territory, as 
will be seen from the following table, giving the exact figures of the census. 
The percentage of deaths was as follows: 



Idaho 0.33 

Alabama 1.08 

Arizona 2 61 

Arkansas 1 26 

California 1 .61 

Colorado 94 

Connecticut 1 .26 

Dakota 0.71 

Delaware .. 1.25 

Louisiana 2.00 

Maine 1 23 

Maryland 1 .24 

Massachusetts 1.77 

Michigan 0.94 

Minnesota . . 0.80 

Mississippi 1.11 

Missouri 1 .53 

Montana , 0.90 

Nebraska 0.81 

Nevada 1 .45 

New Hampshire 1.35 

New Jersey 1 . 17 

New Mexico 1 .28 

NewYork.... 1.58 



District of Columbia 1 53 

Florida 1 21 

Georgia 1 .15 

Illinois 1.33 

Indiana 1 .03 

Iowa 081 

Kansas 1.25 

Kentucky 1.09 

North Carolina 98 

Ohio 1.11 

Oregon 0.69 

Pennsylvania 1 .49 

Rhode Island 1 .26 

South Carolina 1.05 

Tennessee 1.13 

Texas 1.37 



Utah. 



Vermont 1.07 

Virginia 1 .24 

Washington 0.93 

West Virginia 0.91 

Wisconsin .94 

Wyoming 0.81 



It will be observed that the mortality of California—the praises of whose 
climate are carolled in all civilized tongues — is nearly five times greater than 
that of Idaho ; Colorado, a summer land which is most deservedly the resort of 
tens of thousands of health seekers annually, exhibits a mortality nearly three 
times as great as that of Idaho, while Florida, ' ' where 'tis springtime all the 
year," and where our best physicians of all Eastern States unite in directing 
multitudes of patients, makes a showing about three times less favorable than 
that of Idaho. 

But it is sometimes insisted that the United States Army mortality statistics 
are the more valuable, because the troops of the United States Army are sub- 
jected to exactly the same conditions and surroundings, and have the same 
habits everywhere, more nearly than any other class of people. Their food, 
clothing, medical attendance, and places of abode are nearly identically the 
same wherever they go ; consequently, comparing the ratio of mortality among 
them in these different regions leads to a more correct estimate of the 
actual healthfulness of each region than could possibly be obtained in any 
other way. 

According to official reports of the Surgeon-General of the United States 
Army, the percentage of deaths from disease to each 1,000 soldiers in the differ- 
ent military districts of the Union are as follows, the results having been the 
average of many years : 

Localities. Deaths each year from Disease. 

Gulf States 22.50 

Atlantic Coast States 17.83 

Arizona 12.11 

Pennsylvania and Michigan 6.05 

New Mexico 7.77 

Montana 5-62 

California 6.88 

Dakota 4.76 

Wyoming 4.71 

Idaho 3.74 



IDAHO. 11 

Or let us compare the prevalence of certain diseases in the different parts of 
the United States. In an equal number of the soldiers in the different depart- 
ments during the years 1868 and 1869, the number of cases of sickness (not. 
deaths) by malarial fever, stood nearly in the following proportion : 

Department of the East 30 

Department of the South 60 

Department of the Lakes 50 

New Mexico, Indian Territory, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri, over 40 

Wyoming, Nebraska, and Utah 20 

Montana, Dakota, and Minnesota, nearly lO 

Department of the Columbia (Oregon, Washington, and Idaho) 10 

Department of Calif ornia 20 

Department of Arizona 160 

Or compare the mortality, in the different sections, by the great destroyer of 
human life, consumption, and other respiratory diseases. There die annually,, 
in every 1,000 soldiers, by consumption, pneumonia, etc.: 

In Florida, an average of 2.75 

In Texas 3 

In New Mexico and Arizona 3.15 

In California, a little more than 3 

In Idaho, only . ; 1.6 

So that combining these two sets of statistics, both in regard to the entire 
mortality, and also to the mortality by the principal diseases, we have Idaho, 
shown to be the very healthiest part of the United States. 

But we will go farther, and repeat that, so far as we have the vital statistics 
to determine, there is no climate in the world that can compare with that of 
Idaho. Take Italy, the South of France, and Algiers, to which invalids are- 
sent, both the civil and military statistics show a much higher mortality there 
than here. In presenting the following figures, as well as the preceding, 
perfect fairness has been observed. Particular years are taken, not at all 
because they favor a theory, but because they are obtainable and in form to- 
be compared. The death rate per annum, by all diseases, in the Italian army, 
from 1860 to 1876, was about 11 in 1,000. Among the soldiers of the French 
army, stationed in the South of France, in 1872, it was 10 in 1,000. In the.: 
French army in Algiers, during the years 1863, 1864, 1866, and 1870, it was 
14.50, while in Idaho, the death rate, from 1868 to 1881, was only 3.75 in 1,000- 
by all diseases. 

Or let us compare the figures for the diseases of the respiratory organs, 
including consumption, pneumonia, etc., and we have among the soldiers in 
the South of France (including the health resorts of Nice, Mentone, etc.), for 
the year 1872, an average death rate, by these diseases, of 2.4 per 1,000 
annually. In the French army in Algeria, during the years 1863, 1864, and 
1866, it was, by these diseases, more than 3 in 1,000 annually; and in the 
Italian army during the years 1867, 1868, 1869, 1874, 1875, and 1876, the 
deaths by respiratory diseases, including consumption, etc., averaged nearly 4 
in 1,000 annually, while in Idaho the mortality by these diseases, from 1870 to- 
1881, was less than 1 in 1,000 annually. 

All this is confirmed in a remarkable manner by the records of the medical, 
department of the British army from 1859 to 1879. These records show the. 
sanitary condition of the British soldiers, the disease and deaths which occur 
in every military station in the British Dominions, and consequently represent 



12 IDAHO. 

the healthfulness or unhealthfulness of climate in portions of every quarter of 
the globe — Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America, and the Islands 
•of Australia, New Zealand, and the East and West Indies — a mass of official, 
.and certainly very valuable, statistics. 

From 1859 to 1879, at the British Stations of Gibraltar, the Ionian Islands' 
and Malta, in the supposed sanitary zone of the Mediterranean, we find an 
average death rate, by all diseases, of about 7.5, 8.4, and 10.5, respectively, in 
each 1,000 troops per annum, and by respiratory diseases, including consump- 
tion, pneumonia, etc., of 2 in 1,000, being more than twice as great as in Idaho. 
In Australia we find a death rate, from all diseases, of 12 in each 1,000 troops 
.annually, and by respiratory diseases, of over, 5 in 1,000. In New Zealand, of 
8.75 by all diseases, and nearly 3 per 1,000 by respiratory diseases. Japan, 
China, and the East Indies are much worse, having a mortality of from 14 to 
25 in 1,000 troops. In the West Indies it is, by all diseases, from 10 to 12 and 

13 in 1,000, and by respiratory diseases, over 2 per annum. In England itself, 
the mortality is about 8 in 1,000 soldiers, by all diseases, annually, and by 
respiratory diseases, over 3.5. In Canada it is between 6 and 7 per 1,000 by 
all diseases, and over 2 by respiratory diseases. While in British Columbia, 
lying immediately north of Idaho, and having a climate quite similar, the 
death rate per annum, for the four and a half years the British troops were 
there, was a. little over 3 in 1,000 (3.04) by all diseases, being almost exactly 
the same as among our own soldiers in Idaho, in the department of the Colum- 
bia, so similarly situated. Indeed, the British troops were stationed less than 
fifty miles from our boundary line. 

Thus, after making the circuit of the globe in search of health, we come 
■back to find Idaho and the country adjacent to it — extending from the Rocky 
Mountains to the coast regions — the healthiest country, so far as we have any 
positive and reliable evidence, in the world. 

With the possibility of living at any desired elevation above the sea level, 
with a rarefied, dry, pure atmosphere, with almost constantly bright, genial 
sunshine; with a light, dry soil, and with an abundance of pure water, fresh 
from mountain streams, or medicinal waters from numerous springs — is it any 
wonder that Idaho is the healthiest region in the world ? Children born here are 
strong and sturdy, and the diseases incident to childhood never assume a malig- 
nant form. Endemic and epidemic diseases are almost unknown. There are 
no low, swampy lands here, malaria can not exist, and fever and ague have no 
foothold. Consumption, that "dread disease which medicine never cured, 
riches never warded off, nor poverty could boast exemption from," which is 
the scourge and terror of New England and all other moist climates, is either 
here cured, or modified so as to prolong life for many years. The dryness, 
purity, and antiseptic properties of the air have a tendency to counteract and 
reduce the excessive mucous collections, while its rarefaction makes necessary 
more frequent and deeper respirations, thus causing a wholesome expansion of 
the lungs. The bright, warm days are conducive to a cheerful and hopeful 
feeling, which is a great aid in overcoming the disease, while the cool nights 
are productive of sound, invigorating sleep. These influences are no less 
effective in rheumatism, asthma, bronchitis, liver complaint, dyspepsia, and 
many other diseases. In the various mineral springs, both hot and cold, with 



IDAHO. 13 

which the Territory abounds, the patient afflicted with scrofulous or glandular 
diseases finds veritable pools of Bethesda. 

RIVERS, WATERCOURSES, AND SPRINGS. 

Of swift, noble rivers, Idaho has its scores. With the exception of a com- 
paratively small portion of Southeastern Idaho, whose waters flow into the 
Basin of Great Salt Lake, the river system of Idaho is entirely tributary to the 
Valley of the great Columbia River. There are three important rivers in 
Idaho which empty directly into the Columbia, namely, the Spokane, Clark's 
Fork, and the Snake. Snake River meanders through the eastern, southern, 
and western parts of the Territory for over 1,000 miles, and, next to Niagara, 
boasts the most imposing cataract on the Continent — the great Shoshone Falls. 
It rises among the most marvelous scenes of the Yellowstone National Park, 
within a few feet of the crystal founts from which springs that great tributary 
of the Mississippi — the Yellowstone, and within sight of the headwaters of 
that grand inlet of the Gulf of California — the Rio Colorado. Here, at its; 
romantic start, the Snake is also only a day's ride from its twin torrent of the 
North, Clark's Fork, but soon sweeps southward 500 miles, as if to gather in 
the waters of wider and richer fields. Again, flowing majestically northward 
to mark the boundary between Idaho and Oregon, it unites, when within 400 : 
miles of the Pacific, with the Clark's Fork system to form the Columbia. It 
will lead the reader toward a true appreciation of the wondrous volume of the 
Snake River when he is informed that soundings of the deep, blue stream in • 
Eastern Idaho, near the crossing of the Utah Northern Railway, fail to dis- 
cover bottom at 240 feet. 

The Salmon, Boise, Payette, Weiser, and Wood Rivers drain Central and 
Southern Idaho, flowing into the Snake River from the north. The Clearwater,, 
Clark's Fork, Cceur d'Alene, St. Joseph, and Kootenai are all great rivers in 
Northern Idaho. The Snake River is navigable for 300 miles above its junc- 
tion with Clark's Fork, and for 200 miles in the heart of Idaho, 1,000 miles 
from the sea, as well as for shorter stretches in other localities. The Clear- 
water also affords a considerable distance of navigable waters. 

Clark's Fork, Cceur d'Alene, and St. Joseph Rivers are each navigable, and 
larger than the Ohio at Pittsburgh. The Salmon, Clearwater, Kootenai, and 
Payette are larger and compare favorably in picturesqueness with the Sus- 
quehanna, the Juniata or Schuylkill, which are recognized as the noblest and 
most beautiful streams of the AUeghanies or Blue Ridge. All of these and! 
hundreds of minor streams are swift, with clear currents, and are full of trout, 
salmon, and other species of fresh-water fish. They furnish power illimitable 
in extent and easily utilized, and a never-failing supply of water for irrigation 
and domestic purposes. They are also of incalculable value for floating forest 
products from the mountains to consumers in the valleys. Some of the streams, 
of which Big and Little Lost Rivers are notable examples, apparently sink into 
the sage-brush plains, but in reality doubtless have subterranean outlets under- 
neath the lava into the Snake or some of its tributaries. 

Idaho possesses many beautiful and valuable springs, aside from the mineral 
springs which are treated under the heading " Health and Pleasure Resorts." 
The cold springs, large and small, with water clear as crystal and often almost 



14 IDAHO. 

ice-cold, are the sources of many of the smaller streams. In the vicinity of 
Hailey, all about Caldwell, and in every portion of the Territory, in fact, near 
the foothills and in the mountain valleys, are these beautiful founts. They are 
of particular value to various cities and to dairymen and farmers. At Hailey, 
Belle vue, and Boise City, for example, the city water -works are supplied by 
large springs of pure, cold water, located in the hills so high above as to afford 
an ample pressure for domestic and fire purposes. The settler often depends 
on large springs for irrigation and for water for his stock, as well as for their 
cooling influence in the milk house and dairy. Some springs of immense 
volumes — flowing a river of water — burst from the palisades of Snake River, 
south of Mountain Home, and, falling with terrific force several hundred feet 
into the deep torrent below, are among the prominent wonders and scenic 
attractions of Idaho. . 

TIMBER. 

The forest area is 7,000,000 acres, much of it being included in the mount- 
ain region already described. Throughout the central, northern, and eastern 
parts of Idaho the woodlands possess a heavier growth than in a majority of 
the timbered States east of the Rocky Mountains, while in the remaining 
sections the timber supply is equal to that of most of our prairie States. 
There are various varieties of fir, white, red, and black spruce, scrub oak, 
yellow and white pine, mountain mahogany, juniper, tamarack, birch, cotton- 
wood, alder, and willow. 

From careful estimates received from eighteen different parts of the Terri- 
tory, from data furnished by Messrs. Williams and Paul, census statisticians, 
and from Dr. Brewster's "Forests of America," it is safe to give the approxi- 
mate area of these woodlands as follows: 10,000 square miles contain over 
500 acres of timber to the square mile; 12,000 square miles, from 360 to 500 
acres; 5,000 square miles, from 240 to 360 acres; 15,000 square miles, from 120 
to 240 acres; 13,500 square miles, from 10 to 120 acres. 

The railroad travelers crossing Eastern and Southern Idaho, after traversing 
the vast extent of sage-brush plains, would hardly imagine that within the 
Territory were immense forests of timber, in many places so thick as to 
exclude the light of the sun. In Boise, Lemhi, Custer, and Alturas Counties are 
extensive forests. The upper waters of the Boise River, and its tributaries, 
including the South Fork, are heavily timbered. The amount of merchantable 
timber in that section is estimated at from 80,000,000 to 90,000,000 feet, 
exclusive of the South Fork, which is claimed to be more heavily timbered than 
either of the other tributaries. These forests extend thirty or forty miles into 
the mountains, and consist of white pine, fir, and cottonwood in abundance. 
The tributaries of the Upper Salmon also abound with the same kiDd of tim- 
ber. On Salmon and Craig's Mountains, in Idaho County, an extensive body 
of excellent timber is found, reaching from the Snake River, near the mouth 
of the Salmon River, to and across the north fork of the Clearwater, some 
sixty miles. It is estimated that this belt is from five to ten miles in width, 
and consists of white and yellow pine, red and yellow fir, and white cedar. 
This timber is of large growth, and valuable for lumbering purposes. Spruce 
and tamarack are found on the Lolo Creek, a tributary of the Clearwater. 



IDAHO. 15 

Yew trees, a foot in diameter, are found on the upper part of the Clearwater. 
White pine logs, five feet in diameter, and 100 feet in length, without a knot, 
have been rafted down the Clearwater, furnishing the finest quality of lumber 
for finishing purposes. 

The greatest timber regions are in Shoshone and Kootenai Counties, in 
extreme North Idaho. The Pend d'Oreille forests extend in all directions from 
the lake, covering an area over a hundred miles square. Gigantic monarchs of 
the forest lift their heads aloft at a height of over 200 feet, bull pine, white 
pine, tamarack, and fir predominating, while cedar attains marvelous height 
and thickness. From many of the trees the Spanish moss hangs in long, grace- 
ful festoons, adding a pleasing variety to the otherwise sombre scene. " This 
superb forest of the Pend d'Oreille," observes a writer in the Century Maga- 
zine, " is a vast lumber preserve for future generations. The pineries of Mich- 
igan and Minnesota look like open parks compared with it. Nowhere else in 
the United States, save on the western slopes of the western mountains in 
Washington Territory, can be found such a prodigious amount of timber to 
the acre." 

The Payette forests, whose product finds ready market along the Oregon 
Short Line Railway, are among the finest in Idaho. These are largely drawn 
upon for building, fencing, and other improvements all over Southern Idaho. 
All forest products are as cheap to the settler in Idaho as they are to the farmer 
in the Mississippi Valley. 

THE SOIL OF IDAHO. 

In such a vast area as is included within Idaho's boundary, traversed by 
mountain ranges formed of rocks of all kinds and ages, there is necessarily a 
great variety of soil. For the sake of convenience, her soils have been divided 
into four classes, as follows: 

1. Valley soil, which can not be excelled in any other State or Territory in 
the Union. It contains, indeed, the aggregated and condensed richness of the 
vast areas of vegetable growth that have been accumulating for ages on the 
sides of the mountains skirting the valleys. An analysis of this soil shows it to 
be preeminently rich in all the mineral and vegetable elements necessary to the 
growth of all the cereals, vegetables, fruits, etc., etc., usually grown within the 
limits of the Territory. It is of good depth, is invariably found to superimpose 
a gravelly soil, and is so inclined that perfect drainage can be readily and 
effectively had. 

2. Plain and plateau soil, which contains all the elements for the success- 
ful growths of all the cereals, containing a great amount of vegetable mold. 
Not less than three-fourths of all the arable lands of Idaho are included in this 
class. 

3. Mountain soil. This soil is exceedingly rich, especially in the wooded sec- 
tions, where it is black, deep, and full of vegetable mold. All narrow valleys 
and parks in the mountains possess this soil. 

4. Alkali soil. This soil is of limited extent, producing greasewood and 
salt grass, which cattle eat readily, particularly the young shoots. The cause 
of alkaline soils is now generally well understood. The rain which falls dur- 
ing the wet season penetrates deeply into the earth, where it gradually takes up 



16 IDAHO. 

such soluble salts as it encounters there, and as it has accumulated beneath,, 
has gradually risen by- percolation through the interstices of the unconsolidated: 
materials of the soil, bringing with it whatever soluble salts it may have taken 
into solution during its sojourn beneath the surface. " There is no difficulty, 
however," says Capt. C. E. Dutton of the United States Geological Survey, 
"in removing any quantity of these readily soluble salts from the soil, providing 
the leaching process be continued long enough; and it is usually found that 
lands which were originally highly alkaline, become, when reclaimed from 
their alkalinity, among the most fertile." 

It is a well established fact that irrigation has the effect of enriching any of 
these classes of soils. During the irrigating season the streams are generally 
high and turbid, carrying in solution large quantities of vegetable mold, which 
spread very evenly by the process of irrigation, acts not unlike a top dressing 
of manure, and this is repeated annually. 

General Carter of Boise City, late Surveyor-General of Idaho, says: " Open 
a trench or furrow through a newly-plowed field, and let that muddy water 
through it; at first it will soak through its banks, and by percolating wet the 
earth on each side for a distance of perhaps two feet; by that time there will 
be a lining of fine silt to the trench, and no water will go through it. You 
can not irrigate by percolation with this water, and you need fear no seepage: 
from your ditches or canals. There will be a little in the beginning, but it 
will not last. We have to irrigate here by letting the water over the surface 
in a sheet, or better, little drills, such as are formed by a harrow, and the 
result is that we get a layer of fine silt over all the land, which is the best, 
fertilizer we can have. Our lands grow richer by cropping, instead of poorer." 

DIVERSITY OF IDAHO AGRICULTURE. 

There are 12,000,000 to 15,000,000 acres in the valleys and uplands of Idaho, 
lying at an elevation of less than 5,000 feet, which can be irrigated and made 
lavishly productive. We have already described the soils of these arable lands, 
and from the climatic facts also given, the reader will not require an elaborate 
argument to be satisfied that all the cereals and vegetables which can be raised 
north of the cotton-growing line in the Atlantic States nourish in the greatest 
perfection here, and that apples, pears, plums, peaches, grapes, nectarines, 
apricots, and many of the smaller fruits of the finest quality are almost as 
regularly produced as corn in the Missouri bottoms. Even tobacco and cotton 
have been grown in the lower valleys, experiments with the latter in 1887, 
especially, having been very satisfactory. There has been no general failure 
of crops in the Boise Valley in the past seventeen years. 

Irrigation. — Irrigation is the process of conducting water from its natural 
channels by means of canals and ditches, so as to overflow the lower lands for 
farming purposes. To those only familiar with the very slight fall of streams 
of , the Middle States, irrigation is apt to appear impracticable, but in the 
valleys and on the plains of the mountainous regions of the West, the velocity of 
the streams is so great, and the fall so rapid, that it is perfectly feasible. 

In the southern half of Idaho irrigation is generally necessary to insure a 
ripening of crops. This the Idaho farmer considers an advantage. He is 
entirely free from solicitude in regard to drouth or flood while his grain is 



IDAHO. 17 

ripening, and is sure of pleasant weather during harvest time. Irrigation 
enables him to keep his pastures green in autumn, or start them early in the 
spring; it enables him to produce heavier crops and to secure a larger growth 
of fruit trees, shrubbery, etc., in one season than can be obtained by any 
unaided process of nature. The same stream that beautifies and fertilizes his 
soil, can be led by his door and made to furnish power for his churn, grind- 
stone, saw, fanning mill, etc. Better than all these, it carries to his land just 
such qualities of mineral and gaseous matter as is needed to keep it productive 
for years. In New Mexico, lands have been regularly cultivated in this way, 
without any other fertilizer, for 200 years. In the Valley of the Nile it has 
been the principal fertilizer on lands cultivated continuously for over 
3,000 years. The expense of irrigating Idaho lands each season ranges 
from 50 cents to $1.25 per acre. To dig the ditches originally and clear the 
sage-brush from Idaho farms is a much less expense than improving and culti- 
vating lands in the East possessing a light growth of timber, while the annual 
cost of irrigating, above ordinary farming in the Eastern States, is more than 
covered by the acknowledged greater yield and superior quality of the grain 
produced. One man can irrigate eighty acres of cereals or forty acres of corn 
or potatoes, or twenty acres of garden stuff. If done by the farmer himself, 
it does not interfere with the regular work of the farm, coming as it does at a 
time when even Eastern farmers have but little to do save wait upon the weather 
prophet and sigh for rain that does not come. Streams possessing an abun- 
dance of water the year round, and having a very rapid descent, are almost 
everywhere available. Canal companies lease water at from 75 cents to $1.25 
per acre per year, or they will sell perpetual water rights, subject to a small 
annual assessment for canal repairs, at from $0 to $8 per acre. In many 
localities a community of farmers unite and construct their own canals. 

However, the new-comer who prefers such conditions as surrounded him in 
the East, will in Northern Idaho find vast areas of unclaimed territory, where 
the rainfall is ample to insure the growth of all crops. This also applies in 
some mountain vallej^s of Southern and Central Idaho, as well as to large areas 
of bottom-lands along various streams. 

Wheat. — Wheat of all varieties is successfully grown at all altitudes and oh 
all soils in the arable portion of Idaho. It yields an average of thirty bushels 
per acre. Both spring and fall wheat are grown, but the former predominates, 
as there is so little snow in the lower valleys to shelter the tender sprouts of 
fall-sown grain. The quality of Idaho wheat can not be excelled in the world, 
the berry being plump, hard, and bright, and, on account of the unfailing clear 
weather, rarely affected by any of the evils common in rainy regions. 

Barley. — The above, relating to wheat, is in a general way applicable to 
barley, but the yield averages forty bushels per acre. The quality is such 
that brewers of Chicago and Milwaukee eagerly purchase it at a rate which 
insures a good profit. 

Oats. — Oats grow anywhere and yield fifty-five to seventy-five bushels 
per acre. They are very heavy, generally weighing forty-five pounds to the 
bushel. 

Rye. — Rye of the finest quality is successfully grown in all localities. It is 
sown both in the spring and fall, and is mucii used for pasturage. 



18 IDAHO. 

Flax. — The first crop of flax was sown in North Idaho, near Lewiston, in 
1878, and yielded from twenty to twenty -five bushels to the acre. Since then 
the cultivation of flax has become quite general in Northern Idaho. Near Gen- 
essee, at M. Hensen's ranch, thirty-two bushels are raised to the acre. It is 
worth from $1.25 to $1.65 per bushel. 

Corn. — Owing to the cool nights, Idaho is not generally considered a first- 
class corn producing region; but good crops of a superior quality are raised in 
all the lower districts, such as Boise Valley, Payette Valley, Weiser Valley, 
e:c. Early Dent and flint are the principal varieties, although at the fair of 
the Caldwell Fair Association, held at Caldwell, in November, 1887, one 
exhibitor had sixteen varieties of field corn, besides several varities of sweet 
and pop corn. Stalks fifteen feet high, with two or three well-filled ears to 
the stalk, were exhibited by others. 

Broom Corn and Sorghum, are successfully produced in various localities, 
and the raw material is worked up at a handsome profit. Idaho sorghum is 
especially rich in the best juices entering into the composition of syrups and 
sugars. 

Tobacco and Sweet Potatoes, of several varieties, flourish in the milder 
belts of Southern Idaho 

Grasses. — The natural grasses abound, both on mountain side and in valley, 
hence but little attention has been paid to the cultivated varieties. But blue 
grass, orchard grass, red top, timothy, alfalfa, and clover, wherever sown, have 
grown prolifically, and they are hardy in growth, clover and alfalfa, especially, 
yielding three and four crops of from one to three tons each, per acre, in one 
season. Timothy and clover have been grown together, producing grass knee 
high, and making splendid food for horses and cattle. 

Alfalfa is the king of Idaho grasses, its yield in many cases being almost 
incredible, and its fattening properties approaching nearer to those of grain 
than any other grass. 

Vegetables. — Potatoes yield abundantly, averaging over 200 bushels to the 
acre, equal to the finest grown in Utah, varying in price from $1 to $3 per 100 
pounds, according to the season. When they are well watered they are of 
large size, white, mealy, and delicious. Over 2,000 car-loads of potatoes were 
shipped from Idaho points over the Union Pacific Railway in 1887 and 1888 to 
Eastern markets, where they are in great demand. All kinds of garden vege- 
tables, such as beets, peas, squashes, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, rhubarb, 
onions, etc., are successfully cultivated. The crop is enormous, the quality 
good, and a profitable market is readily found for all that is not needed at 
home. Nearly every farmer has his garden well stocked with all kinds of 
vegetables. Cabbages average twelve pounds to the head; and sweet corn, 
lettuce, melons, radishes, egg-plant, etc., are noticeably thrifty and superior. 
The market is a consideration not to be overlooked by intending settlers, since 
abundant crops would be of little value if no market at remunerative rates was 
to be had close at home, or within easy reach by rail. 



IDAHO. 



19 



The following is an official resume* of agricultural productions to the acre, in 
bushels, of the States of the Rocky Mountain region and of the East, in com- 
parison with Idaho: 



States. 



Wheat, 


Rye. 


Oats. 


Barley. 


Potatoes. 


30 


25 


55 


40 


250 


12 




31 




95 


17 


15 


30 


23 


114 


21 


14 


31 


23 


95 


13 


15 


31 


23 


69 



Corn. 



Idaho 

Nevada 

California 

Oregon 

Eastern States 



Following is a compilation of assessors' reports showing the production of 
hay and grain in the various Idaho counties in J8S8. Reports from three 
counties were not sent in, Alturas, one of the heaviest producers in the Terri- 
tory being among those missed : 



Counties. 


Wheat, 


Oats. 


Barley. 


Hay. 


Flax- 
seed. 


Corn. 


Potatoes. 


Rye. 


Vda 


Bushels. 

175,500 

80,000 

113,000 

75,000 

92 000 

6,780 

300,000 

820,000 

20,000 

1,000,000 

200,000 

4,000 

100,000 


Bushels. 

200,000 

90,000 

178,000 

25,000 

95,000 

33,390 

100,000 

200,000 

60.400 

100,000 

125 000 

7,000 

50,000 


Bushels 

25,000 

1,000 

5,750 

5,000 

90,000 

1,940 

45,000 

60,000 

1,000 

100.000 

30,000 

10,000 

20,000 


Tons. 
60,000 
75,000 
22,870 
65,000 
25.000 

2,260 
50,000 
12.000 

5,500 

575 

130,000 

5 760 
75,000 


Bushels 


Bushels 
15,000 
1,000 
5,000 
10,000 


Bushels. 
60,000 
75,000 
76,895 
25,000 


Bushels 








2,400 
500 


















5.000 




20,000 






140,000 


500 










Nez Perces 


50,000 


10,000 


1,200,000 


35,000 


Owyhee 




1,000 


20,000 


1,000 














Total 


2,986,280 


1,264,590 


394,690 


528,965 


195,000 


42,500 


1,476,895 


38,900 



EXPERIENCES OF FARMERS. 

R. H. Beaman, in Genesee Valley, near Lewiston? has produced 1,000 
bushels of wheat on eleven acres of "ground, and often harvests 100 bushels of 
oats per acre. A neighbor harvested forty -five bushels of wheat and sixty-five 
of oats per acre for several successive seasons. 

Hon. John Hailey, Idaho's former delegate to Congress, has raised on his 
splendid Wood River Valley ranch, near Hailey, four and one-half tons of 
timothy hay to the acre. 

Says the Gceur d'Alene Record: "J. O. Thomas is the latest contributor to 
the Record's store-house of agricultural wonders. He brought up from his 
Eagle garden a bunch of parsnips measuring frorn twenty to twenty-six inches 
in length. If Judge Thomas can spin out cases proportionately long a half 
dozen will last him till another election comes round." 

Salt Lake Tribune: "In stock raising, ranching, etc., Idaho made rapid 
strides during 1888. Her population has increased until it numbers over 
100,000 loyal people, who are in position to ask for Statehood. Districts which 
five years ago were sage-brush districts, have bloomed into rich farming lands, 
where grains, vegetables and fruits grow in profusion. There are thousands 
and thousands of acres of fine lands only awaiting settlement and irrigating 



20 IDAHO. 

ditches to furnish pleasant homes for settlers. These lands, through corpora- 
tions and efforts of private citizens, are being reclaimed by making ditches. 
Good crops are raised from the very start after getting water on the ground 
and clearing away the sage. The country is so diversified in character, having 
mineral, timber, grazing, and farming lands, giving varied occupations to the 
people as to afford good markets for all classes of products, and there is a 
demand for laborers in all classes of occupation. Idaho has more good agricul- 
tural and grazing lands and mineral lodes unoccupied than any of our Terri- 
tories, and it offers more inducements for settlement." 

Hon. E. A. Stevenson, for many years a resident, and at present Governor 
of Idaho, had the following to say in his 1888 report in regard to Alturas 
County, and Idaho generally: 

1 "It is the Banner County of Idaho in size, wealth, and population. It is 
about 190 miles in length, and varying from 60 to 120 miles in width, and has 
almost any desired climate that may be selected at the different points of eleva- 
tion. All fruits and grain pertaining to the temperate zone can be cultivated 
successfully and in almost unlimited quantities. There can be no better stock- 
raising country found on the Continent, affording in the high mountains the 
finest summer ranges, and the lower plains can scarcely be excelled for winter 
grazing. I have no doubt from my own observation that there has been raised 
in this county, this year, fully 250,000 bushels of grain, and more than 50,000 
tons of hay, besides all kinds of vegetables in abundance. The Wood River 
Valley is one of the finest in Idaho, with good soil and plenty of water, which 
can easily be taken from the beautiful, clear mountain streams on to any por- 
tion of the valley. Of its productiveness I will relate but a single instance. 
On the Spring Brook Ranch, the home of Hon. John Hailey, I saw last month 
a field of timothy, sown last April, standing three feet high and so thick that 
you could scarcely part it with your hand to see the ground. There was cut 
and weighed four and one-half tons of thoroughly-cured, clean timothy hay 
per acre. A field of timothy, five months from the seed, yielding four and 
one-half tons of cured liay per acre is hard to believe, but it is nevertheless true. 

*' The great natural agricultural and mining resources of Idaho are to-day 
practically undeveloped. In the Counties of Alturas, Bingham, Cassia, Cus- 
ter, Lemhi, Owyhee, Boise, Washington, Idaho, and Oneida are large tracts of 
good agricultural and grazing lands that are open to settlement, and more or 
less in all the other counties. There is plenty of water that could be taken 
out of the rivers by companies of settlers on to the very best Government 
lands. Thousands of .good and valuable quartz-mines of gold, silver, copper, 
and lead are yet unlocated and unoccupied. The very finest water-powers in 
America are yet open to location. Splendid locations for mills, quartz-mills, 
factories, tanneries, woolen-mills, with water-power unlimited, are open to men 
of enterprise. Constructing canals and irrigating ditches from the numerous 
rivers on to the large tracts of desert lands will prove to be enterprises worthy 
the attention of capitalists. 

1 ' Sites for the establishment of factories for the manufacture of butter and 
cheese, with plenty of grass, water, timber, and all other necessary natural 
facilities, unsurpassed anywhere, can yet be secured, besides having one of 
the best markets for their products, The market price of fresh butter from 



IDAHO. 21 

good reliable makers runs from 25 cents to 40 cents per pound. Yet, with all 
these natural advantages, it is a singular but undisputed fact that not more 
than one-half of the butter and cheese consumed in Idaho is of home produc- 
tion. There are many stock men who have thousands of cattle, who go into 
the market and purchase butter and cheese for their own consumption." 

Dr. Wright, of Caldwell, who has a farm near Middleton, says that one field 
of ten acres has produced from 500 to 600 bushels of wheat every season 
for the past fourteen years, and it still produces as well, if not better, than 
ever. 

Mr. H. O. Harkness has a ranch in Eastern Idaho, along the Oregon Short 
Line. He has 400 acres of meadow land, yielding large crops, and he culti- 
vated, in 1887, 100 acres in cereals, producing 4,000 bushels of small grain and 
1,000 bushels of potatoes. His hay crop was over 300 tons, while most of bis 
meadow lands were pastured. He has about 7,500 cattle, 500 calves, and a large 
herd of horses and mules. Being a great admirer of fine stock, he has entered 
largely into the breeding of such, and has met with grand success. During 
the summer his ranch gives employment to about twenty men, and half that 
number during the winter. His ranch and stock business is a sample of what 
Idaho farms can produce when managed properly, as it is wholly the result of 
labor. • 

In one case in Boise Valley, fifty-four pounds of wheat were produced from 
a single square rod, being at the rate of 140 bushels to the acre. The wheat 
produced in this instance has been called " Idaho white wheat," and is of supe- 
rior quality. It matures from fall or spring sowing, is white, beardless, and 
heavy, and produces a large proportion of flour. 

Mr. I. N. Costan, a,member of the Legislature for many years, and one of 
the most prominent farmers of the Boise Valley, makes the following state- 
ment : ' ' Last year, on ten acres of my poorest land, with imperfect irriga- 
tion, I raised forty tons of red-clover hay; sold 75,000 pounds (1,250 bushels) of 
onions from two acres; potatoes only gave 200 bushels to the acre. I have 
raised 1,000 bushels on two acres. Have raised 113 bushels of barley to the 
acre; wheat from forty to sixty bushels; oats 100 to 150 bushels; carrots and 
turnips equally as good as potatoes. Connecticut flint corn will grow well, 
especially* on the higher benches; have raised sixty bushels to the acre in the 
bottoms. Prunes, the Germans say, are better than in their own country. 
Apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, etc., are as good, if not bet- 
ter, than in the most favored spots in California. The elm, soft maple, black 
walnut, locust, etc., make our best shade trees." 

Mr. B. B. Stewart, whose farm is situated nearly opposite Boise City, is said 
to have the poorest land in the valley. He admits it is rather poor when first 
broken up, but the muddy waters of the Boise seem to have a powerful effect 
on it. He gives the following as examples of what he can do with his land : 
" I have been farming for five years on this same tract of land. My principal 
crop has been grass, which improves with irrigation. I grow alfalfa and clover ; 
my average crop is four tons to the acre, in two cuttings, and it is now better 
than when first seeded. I raise about fifteen acres of potatoes, which average 
150 bushels of merchantable potatoes to the acre — about an average crop with 
me. Have raised corn every year I have worked the land, until last year ; have 



"22 IDAHO. 

grown flint corn, never less than twenty-five bushels to the acre, and on an 
average from thirty to thirty-five bushels to the acre. In 1887 I raised an early 
Dent corn, which has yielded better than the flint corn. I can cut and put hay 
in the stack for the cost of one ton of hay to the acre, which leaves a net of 
three tons to the acre. I have a small apple and pear orchard of about an acre, 
which has been planted three years ; would have had quite a crop in 1887 if the 
fruit buds had not been killed by the unusually cold weather of the previous 
'winter ; have about a half acre of small fruits, currants, raspberries, straw- 
berries, etc., etc. I sold from eighteen square rods of land, $125 worth of 
strawberries, besides using all we wanted in the family. I find I can grow 
larger crops of small fruit, as well as other crops here, than in Massachusetts, 
Missouri, or Oregon — in all of which States I have cultivated fruits, etc. To 
sum up, I can raise larger crops and with more certainty, on this sage-brush 
desert, with irrigation, than in either of the above States, depending upon the 
usual rainfall, besides having clear weather always to secure crops after they 
have grown." 

Mr. Payne, a neighbor of Mr. Stewart, went on his land in the spring of 
1878. Having irrigated a year or two longer than Mr. Stewart, he has better 
crops. In 1888 he raised nearly 400 tons of alfalfa on sixty acres of land (over 
six tons per acre), 160 tons of clover on forty acres (^our tons per acre). He 
does not raise much wheat, because he thinks feed crops pay better. Oats sown 
with clover gave him thirty bushels per acre in 1887. He has usually raised 
very good flint corn, but did not plant any in 1887. Four years ago, he set out 
200 apple trees, and in 1887 he realized an average of two bushels per tree, and 
in 1888 about five bushels per tree. His potatoes yielded 200 bushels per acre. 

The following yield of grain in the neighborhood of Moscow, Northern Idaho, 
has been furnished us, and can be vouched for as correct. On the farm of Mr. 
M. W. Smith, on Cedar Creek, 200 bushels of wheat (machine measure) were 
threshed from two and a half acres of measured ground. R. B. Hogan threshed 
3,000 bushels of oats from thirty-four acres of ground on the farm of O. S. 
Cochran, near Kamiack Butte. B. Maxer, who also lives near Kamiack Butte, 
threshed 812 bushels of oats from nine acres of ground. Potatoes raised in the 
Palouse soil, known as the " Palouse Beauty," weigh frequently ..over four 
pounds. A single potato vine measured ten feet in length. The laterals, 
together with the main stalk, measured just 304 feet, 6 inches. 

Hon. John B. Miller, formerly of Iowa, but now residing in Cassia County, 
Southern Idaho, writes: "The crops generally raised are wheat, oats and 
bailey, and all the vegetables common in Iowa and Illinois. Owing to the 
cool nights in summer but little corn is raised. All kinds of fruit trees and 
shrubbery grow finely here; the finest varieties in rose bushes, which can only 
be raised in Iowa with extreme care, live through the winter without any pro- 
tection. While fruit is not a certain crop, owing to the mildness of the winters 
which prevents the ground from freezing to any depth and retarding the too 
early blossoming of the trees, which sometimes results in the fruit being killed 
by frost, yet the varieties grown here are greater than any portion of the United 
States, if we except California; frequently in the same garden you will see 
trees loaded down with apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums and 
prunes. The fruit yield of 1886 was simply enormous, while the crop of 1887, 



IDAHO 23 

Was good. I fully realize the difficulty of explaining the climate so that it will 
be understood by an Iowa man. In midwinter we may have one day a snow 
from five to eight inches deep, and wonder how on earth the horses, cattle and 
sheep are to live out on the range without feed, when in perhaps twenty-four 
or forty-eight hours, we feel the "chinook " (coast wind) commencing to blow, 
soft as an evening breeze in summer, but steady, and in a short time the snow 
will disappear and the ground become completely dry. As you are perhaps 
aware, all kinds of stock are allowed to run out on the range in winter, with- 
out feed, and as a rule come out fat in the spring. You can perhaps get a 
more correct idea of the mild character of the winters here when I tell you that 
birds which are usually migratory remain here summer and winter. The wild 
geese breed and remain here at all seasons." 

Will it pay to farm in Idaho, and if so, how much? This question has been 
asked elsewhere, as well as here, and has been successfully answered. "What 
man has done, man can do," is a familiar motto. Here is the result of one 
farmer's operations: 

Interest on 1G0 acres of land, $10 per acre, at 10 per cent $16Q 00 

Water right, $800 ; interest on same 80 00 

Plowing, at $1.25 per acre 200 00 

Harrowing, 50 cents per acre 80 00 

Seed wheat 150 00 

Labor of irrigation 1G0 00 

Labor— harvesting and stacking 400 00 

Labor— threshing— 4,800 bushels 384 00 

Marketing 150 00 

Total expense $1,764 00 

Yield, 30 bushels per acre, 4,800 bushels, at $1 per bushel $4,800 00 

Less expense 1,764 00 

Net profit, exclusive of labor, over all expenses ,, $3,036 00 

As Government land can be had free on homestead, or as low as $1.25 per 
acre on preemption claims, the $160 interest money can often be carried to 
profit account, showing a still larger return. In sections of Northern Idaho, 
where irrigation is not absolutely required, there is the interest on the water 
right, and the cost of irrigation to be also added. This is for about eight 
months in the year. 

Wheat is the least profitable of Idaho crops. The production of vegetables, 
hay, or fruits pays far better. 

It is not unusual for immigrants to locate on wild land in Idaho valleys 
adjacent to mining regions, put up comfortable houses, good fences, etc., and 
pay for all such improvements with the first year's crop of potatoes or other 
vegetables taken from only a small portion of their farms. The facts that Idaho 
farmers were, as a rule, very poor when they embarked in business a few years 
ago, and that they are now generally well off and have fine buildings and the 
best implements, with often large herds of stock, are proof that this is a lucra- 
tive pursuit. 

Idaho potatoes sell for 75 cents to $1.50 per 100 pounds — sometimes in 
mining camps much higher — and other vegetables in proportion. Take 
here, in connection with grain raising, the production of poultry, eggs, butter, 
pork, vegetables, and similar items now almost unnoticed as " not worth bother- 
ing about," and the industrious and frugal farmer and housewife, managing 
as do those in thickly-settled States from necessity, should soon make them- 



24 IDAHO, 

selves independent. It is often almost impossible in the winter to secure fresh 
eggs at 50 cents per dozen in Idaho towns, and during the past winter we have 
seen 75 cents offered. Butter often ranges from 40 to 50 cents the entire 
winter, and it is frequently impossible to secure a good article. 

The constant increase in the magnitude of railway, mining, and other opera- 
tions in all parts of the Territory justifies the belief that any considerable sur- 
plus of produce can not be raised in the mountain districts for years to come, 
and until that time prices must remain from 50 to 100 per cent, higher than in 
the States. Again, agricultural land is usually so beneficently interspersed with 
the great mineral belts that the market will be at hand, and the miner accommo- 
dated as well as the farmer. This reminds us that in Pocahontas Valley, near 
the Oregon Short Line, there is a 160-acre homestead from one end of which 
fifty bushels of wheat per acre was harvested last season, while from a gulch 
at the other end gold was being mined to the extent of 50 cents per pan. 

FRUIT CULTURE. 

Idaho Valleys can not be excelled by any region east of California for the 
production of fruit. Apples, peaches, pears, nectarines, apricots, plums, 
grapes, and all small fruits are produced in the greatest abundance, and of a 
quality unsurpassed. The sage-brush lands, naturally the very emblem of sterility 
and desolation, are in a few years turned into the finest fruit farms with, less 
trouble than would attend a similar transformation on the wild prairies of Iowa 
or Nebraska. A prominent fruit grower estimates that 25,000 large fruit trees 
have been set out annually for the past five years in the valleys surrounding 
Boise City. Several of the orchards in this locality produce from 25,000 to 
40,000 bushels of fruit each, annually. Gen. L. F. Carter, ex-Surveyor General 
of Idaho, has forty varieties of grapes in his vineyard, few of which have ever 
failed to bear a full crop, save the Catawba. John Krall, in the suburbs of Boise 
City, has 125 acres in fruits (20,000 trees), embracing all the varieties known in 
this latitude. The production of this fruit-farm in a recent season was 500,000 
pounds. His market is mainly in the mining camps, and his fruits command 
from 3 to 10 cents per pound. Thos. Davis, also near Boise City, has a 75- 
acre orchard (10,000 trees). His orchard has failed to produce but once in 
the last eleven years, and his* last season's crop of 40,000 bushels of large fruits 
and 500 bushels of berries returned him a snug little fortune alone. His orchard 
is eighteen years old. He irrigated the first four or five years, but has not 
found it necessary since. Mr. Davis has an extensive fruit-drying apparatus, 
and a cider and vinegar factory, in which he works up vast quantities of fruit 
annually. Indeed, fruit-drying and the manufacture of cider is a prominent 
and very profitable industry. One firm dries from 80,000 to 40,000 pounds of 
fruit annually, and this industry bids fair to grow until at least the demand of 
Idaho and adjacent territory is supplied. 

The fourth year's growth of apple trees in Boise Valley has yielded 200 
pounds; of cherries, 75 pounds; peaches, 150 pounds; of pears, 130 pounds; of 
plums, 150 pounds; while small fruit such as strawberries, currants, gooseber- 
ries, blackberries, and raspberries are very prolific. Many of the more ele- 
vated mountain regions, such as Wood River Valley, can duplicate these fig- 
ures, except as to peaches. The growth of wood made by fruit trees, and the 



IDAHO. 25 

quantity of fruit often found loading the branches is almost incredible. John 
Lamb, in Boise City, has black locust trees on which we were shown limbs 
that had grown from twelve to fifteen feet in one season, and plum, peach, and 
apple trees, two years from the graft, full of fruit. In another orchard we 
counted 140 nearly-ripe green gage plums on a branch seventeen inches long, 
the plum's averaging one and a half inches in diameter. 

Idaho is the very Eden for plums and prunes. The trees are perfectly 
healthy, grow vigorously, and bear much earlier than in the States east of the 
Rocky Mountains, and for size, beauty, and excellence of flavor, the fruit is un- 
surpassed in any part of the globe. One farmer has sold his prune crop at an 
average of $600 per acre. Another has recently set twenty acres in prunes. Plums 
and prunes, especially the latter, are found to be so profitable for drying that 
many orchards are being planted for that purpose. There seems to be no 
danger of overdoing the business, as the plum and prune growing districts of 
the United States are very limited, and immense quantities of dried prunes are 
imported from Europe. The Idaho German prunes are pronounced superior 
to the imported fruit. 

The " Fruit Belt " covers all the agricultural district in Idaho, although 
some elevated regions are too cool to admit of the production of peaches, 
apricots, and nectarines. In Wood River Valley, Camas Prairie, Bear Lake 
Valley, Malad Valley, Goose Creek Valley — all of which are really mountain 
valleys — all kinds of hardy fruits grow abundantly. Currants of a wild 
variety, when cultivated, grow as large as gooseberries, and gooseberries as 
large in proportion. In these mountain valleys the growth of these kinds of 
fruits is something remarkable. Strawberries and raspberries flourish and 
produce an excellent quality of fruit. Apples, pears, etc., have been grown 
sufficiently to insure their successful production. Many trees have been 
planted during the last three years, and several orchards are bearing slightly. 
The fruit is fair and free from worms. The trees that have been planted make 
a healthy and vigorous growth. It is known that cherries and plums will 
thrive, but the winters are too severe for peaches. 

There is a grand future in store for the Idaho fruit-grower. Montana to the 
north, Wyoming on the east, and Nevada to the south, produce practically no 
fruit. With her railroads, reaching the remotest corner of these Territories, 
and with a vast consumption at home, Idaho is assured the best fruit market in 
the land. Large shipments have already been made during recent seasons. 
Boise Valley has supplied not only her home market and Wood River, but also 
the neighboring territory with her fruits. Official figures show that out of a 
total of 500,000 pounds of fresh fruit received at Butte, Mont., up to Novem- 
ber 1, 1887, 253,430 pounds were from Boise Valley, the remainder being from 
California, the Missouri River Valley, Utah, and Portland. From November 1st, 
up to which date the above figures are given, an additional 150,000 pounds of 
apples were shipped to Butte from this valley, making in all 400,000 pounds of 
fruit contributed by Boise Valley to the single mining camp of Butte in one 
season . 

A recent writer, in reference to the profits of the fruit farm of Mr. Thomas 
Davis, near Boise City, says: " Preparatory to shipment, the apples are packed 
in 50-pound boxes. They readily find a market in all parts of Idaho and 



26 IDAHO. 

adjoining States and Territories. No less than 250,000 pounds of this fruit 
have already been sent by rail to various parts of the Northwest, and Mr. Davis 
still has as many stored away in the three-story building, specially prepared f or 
the purpose, and shipments continue to be made almost daily. Apples boxed 
and shipped net about $1.25 per 100 pounds, so we may safely calculate that 
the fruit already disposed of and that yet in store will bring Mr. Davis a clear 
$6,250. Besides this he has 150 barrels of vinegar, 20,000 pounds of choice 
dried apples, and a considerable quantity of pears and cider. Altogether this 
year, the net profit derived from this sample orchard will reach the handsome 
sum of $10,000. This is only a sample of what Idaho is doing in the way of 
producing fruit, which is everywhere pronounced of superior quality and 
delicious flavor. 

As indicative to some extent of the long, mild growing seasons in the lower 
valleys of Idaho, we note the fact that the second crop of berries and other 
fruits is not infrequently picked the same year. Says the Boise Statesman, of 
October, 1888 : " Dr. E. Smith showed us samples of a second crop of apples 
on one of the trees in his orchard. They were of the Early Bough variety, and 
were mellow and really good apples. Two peculiarities about these apples are 
worthy of mention. The first crop on the tree grew here and there all over 
the tree, while the second crop grew in clusters. In the first crop, the apples 
were round, and in the second, they were long and narrow. Strange freak this, 
all owing, no doubt, to this ' wonderful climate ' of Idaho. F. H. McDonald, 
living near Star Post Office, also brought to the Statesman office yesterday 
samples of a second and third crop of apples for the current year. The second- 
crop apples were large and mellow, really excellent eating apples, while the 
third crop were as large as walnuts with the shell on. They grew in bunches. 
We have seen a number of samples of second-crop apples, but this is the first 
we have seen of a third crop. Farmer McDonald may pass to the head of the 
class." 

J. A. Goodhue, manager of the western branch of the Geneva Nursery, 
lately visited "Western Idaho. In an interview he said : 

" I first went to Caldwell and stopped a number of days. The town has 
about 500 people, and is growing steadily. Merchants report business as satis- 
factory and all the time increasing. Produce brings good prices. Hay sells, 
I think, at $15 per ton ; oats, $1.50 to $2 per 100 pounds ; potatoes, $1 per 100; 
in fact, all products have a good market. 

"I went along the Idaho Irrigating and Colonization Company's ditch. It 
takes water from the Boise River, opposite Caldwell, and extends northwest 
about twenty-three or twenty-four miles. It is completed, and is estimated to 
cover between 30,000 and 40,000 acres, all of which is first-class heavy 
sage-brush land. Most of this land is already taken, and quite a num- 
ber are improving. I am having my section cleared of sage-brush, and the 
brush makes the fence. Such a fence is four feet wide and four and one-half 
feet high. Posts are put in a rod apart, and one strand of wire is stretched 
above. Such a fence will last a long time. Land can be cleared and fenced 
for about $4 per acre. 

' ' I understand that arrangements have been made with Eastern capitalists to 
furnish money to buy the Ridenbough ditch, and to enlarge and extend it. 



IDAHO. 21 

This takes water from the river above Boise City and conreys it to the table-lands. 
After enlarging they will extend it to Nanipa, thence to Bernad's and Hender- 
son's Ferries. Its cost will be $100,000. 

"I believe that part of Western Idaho extending from Boise City across 
south to Snake River and west to Weiser, will become the garden spot of 
Idaho within the next five years. I think Boise Valley the richest in Idaho. 
There is another locality a little farther east that should be mentioned, 
Mountain Home. The town is in the center of a large country subject to cul- 
tivation with irrigation." 

Sail Lake Tribune, Dec, 1888. — " Idaho has over 100,000 inhabitants, and of 
these a greater proportion has reached maturity than those of any other 
Territory. The population is rapidly increasing, and the prospects of Idaho 
for a vast increase in the near future are very great. Her mines are equal to 
the best, but really her mines are not her greatest source of permanent wealth. 
Idaho is the best watered of all the Territories except "Washington. We have 
not the exact data, but we believe that the surveys will make good the 
assertion that Idaho can, within the next few years, have more magnificent 
land under the perfect cultivation that comes through a thorough system of 
irrigation, more land, acre for acre, than there is now under cultivation in all 
the New England States, with New York added." 

Says the Mountain Home Bulletin, November 2, 1888: " G. W. Smith this 
week presented us with a good-sized and fine-flavored apple which was taken 
from the second crop on a tree in the orchard of Mr. Robertson, on Bruneau 
River. Last June this tree produced a splendid crop of very large apples, 
and now it is again loaded with another lot, but not so large as the first crop. 

The Shoshone Journal notes second crops of apples, strawberries, and 
raspberries on several different ranches in the vicinity of Caldwell. 

STOCK RAISING. 

The natural and long-continued dryness of the atmosphere — summer and 
winter — the almost inexhaustible and wonderfully nutritious grasses, which 
cure as they grow, making them as sustenance for animals, almost equal to 
the feeding of hay and grain, the infrequency of snow or other storms during 
the year, the warm breezes from the Pacific, and the ability of stock to live 
without shelter and take care of themselves, prove Idaho to be their natural 
home and breeding ground. Botanists inform us that on'the 25,000,000 acres 
of Idaho grazing lands there are not less than thirteen different species of 
indigenous and nutritious grasses, all differing in leaf, height, root, and seed 
top, and which retain vigorous vitality throughout the coldest winters. The 
best and the most common of these is the bunch-grass. It grows almost every- 
where. There are several different varieties of bunch-grass, two of which are 
the most popular and generally known, one with a blade that resembles the 
blue-grass, and stems which run up in a cluster, bearing seed much in the 
same manner that blue-grass does, except that it does not form a tuft, but 
grows in bunches, and is found upon the high, rolling bench-lands, parks, and 
mountains. The other kind grows more frequently upon the first bench, 
next to the bottoms, the blade is sharp, the heads all turn to one side, and from 
the broad boot od the seed-stock is often called the "flag-grass." As to 



§8 fDAttO. 

quantity per acre there is but little, if any, difference. The latter is usually 
preferable for cattle, but the former is thought to be best for sheep, yet either 
is very fine. 

These grasses start forth in early spring, and grow very rapidly. If there 
have been heavy snows during the winter, and the ground is well saturated 
with water, or if -there are frequent rain and snow storms as the spring opens, 
the crop of bunch-grass is very large. In ordinary springs the grass is headed 
out by the 1st of June, and the prairies and hills, where not covered by sage, 
are beautiful as a waving field of grain. The height of the grass is usually 
from six to twelve inches, with blades from six to eight inches long; yet under 
very favorable circumstances it grows much taller. We have seen miles and 
miles of bunch lands along the mountain slopes, which were one vast sea of 
bunch-grass fully eighteen inches high, and thick enough to mow. By the 
last of June the heads ripen, and in ordinary seasons the blades are all nicely 
cured by the middle of July, and the whole landscape is brown as a field of 
grain ready for the sickle, and would burn if set on fire. In exceptional seasons 
the blades of the grass remain green and continue to grow until September. 
There is, however, no advantage in it remaining green, as there seems to be no 
preceptible difference in the fattening of stock. In fact, many incline to the 
opinion that the early cured is the best. The cured grass retains its nutriment 
all winter, from the fact that there are no drenching rains in the fall to bleach 
it, the light snow which come in early winter, and melt off soon, only serving 
to moisten it and make it more palatable. Then the shrubs, such as white, 
black, and yellow sage, and greasewood, are abundant and invaluable for 
winter grazing. 

There is an almost unlimited area of summer pasturage in the mountains and 
many mountain parks and elevated valleys, while the Great Snake River plains 
and tributary valleys have thus far afforded an ample winter feeding ground. 
This refers to the purely " range " cattle business, in which the animals are left 
wholly to care for themselves. In this way the annual expense of caring for 
cattle or horses in herds of 1,000 or more, is about $1 per head. Adding taxes, 
and we have the total cost of producing a $30 steer— about $4.50. Men, who 
five to ten years ago engaged in the business on a small capital, find themselves 
rich. The consequence is that many business men in recent years have invested 
in cattle. All figure on a profit of from 25 to 35 per cent, per annum. Stock 
cattle, all ages and "sexes, sell in Idaho at an average of about $18 per head. 
Until the country is thoroughly stocked, no money is needed for a ranch. Im- 
provements generally consist of rough log huts and corrals, which, for say 1,000 
head of cattle, need not cost over $250, if the owner relies largely on his own 
muscle. The additional expense is the cost of living, if the owner does his 
own herding, and this will vary from $250 to $400 a year. If a herder is em- 
ployed he receives about $35 per month and board. 

But the cattle business is rapidly taking a different, a more satisfactory, and 
equally profitable form. Owing to the rapid occupation of the ranges and their 
gradual reduction by the enroachment of farmers, many stock men are already 
securing tracts of the fertile Government lands near their ranges and providing 
feed for at least a portion of their cattle. Herds are being rapidly improved by 
the introduction of blooded bulls of the best beef breeds. One breeder, near 



IDAHO. 29 

Hailey, lias nearly 200 head of choice thoroughbred shorthorn cat lie, which 
he shipped from Kentucky during the summer of 1888, in pursuance of this 
new plan. Fields of clover, alfalfa, and other grasses are being sown, to feed 
them a month or two in the winter, and it is estimated that within three years 
the average value of such herds will have doubled, thus amply justifying the 
additional expense and trouble. One hundred acres of clover or afalfa, at alow 
estimate, will produce 500 tons of hay. This will, during the average Idaho 
winter, feed 500 head of cattle, keeping them in a fine, growing condition, 
absolutely insuring them against loss, and produce as much weight in a, 3-year- 
old steer as the 4-year-old would weigh under the old system. 

There is a grand field for the investment of either large or small capital in 
either of these systems. In Bingham, Lemhi, Washington, Alturas, Owyhee, 
and Ada Counties, and all along the Snake River for 400 miles, in sight of the 
Oregon Short Line, as well as in Northern Idaho and Eastern Oregon and 
Washington, are vast and only partially occupied cattle ranges, where the for- 
tunate few who are established are on a sure and short road to fortune. The 
present low price of cattle makes it possible for the new-comer to get his start 
in these districts under much more favorable circumstances than did the 
hundreds who have become comfortably " well off " during the past ten years 
in this business. 

The official returns show a total of 238,915 cattle in Idaho in 1888, but that 
is much beneath the real number, which is fixed at 400,000 by those in a posi- 
tion to know. About 30,000 head are marketed annually, most of which are 
shipped over the Union Pacific Railway to Eastern markets, the balance being 
consumed in Idaho towns and mining camps. 

Stock trains on the Union Pacific, from Idaho points eastward, are run on 
passenger train time, and the rates to Chicago are only a comparatively small 
advance over those from points much nearer the East. This accommodation 
and concession upon the part of the Union Pacific Railway Company, when 
taken in consideration with the superior natural advantages of this region, 
places the Idaho stock raiser in a very favorable position when compared with 
those east of the Rocky Mountains. 

In a letter to the writer of these pages, Hon. George L. Shoup, of Salmon 
City, has this to say on the subject of stock raising: "The stocK grower is 
also rewarded with a handsome income from his herds of cattle, sheep, and 
horses. Cattle and horses winter in Idaho without hay or grain, subsisting and 
keeping in good condition upon bunch-grass, sweet sage and other nutritious, 
food; a ready market at good prices is found in the mining camps for most of 
the beef produced, and the surplus is shipped to Chicago and other Eastern 
markets. The shipment can be made profitable on account of reduced rates 
given by the Union Pacific Railway from points on its Utah & Northern 
branch. From the writer's personal experience in cattle raising, he can verify 
the statement that it can be conducted with large profit. Like all other kinds 
of business, a few have been disappointed in not realizing their expectations. 
The cause is easily traced to the fact that their stock was permitted to run at 
will, many of the increase going unbranded, much of the old stock wandering 
off to neighboring ranges, and in the fall of the year no care was taken to 
place the stock on a good winter range.. Those having taken care of their 



30 IDAHO. 

stock have in all cases done well, and have made more money than could have 
been realized from the same amount of capital invested in any other legitimate 
enterprise." 

Another old resident writes as follows: " The farmer and stock raiser have 
the endless mountain range, free of taxes, upon which to raise their stock. 
From the very nature of the country, there will always be comparatively few 
towns in Idaho. The real business will be farming, stock raising, and mining. 
While fortunes will be made for ages to come at the last-named business, stock 
raising and farming will be the most certain investments. Stock raising must 
always be good; for, as I said before, it costs but little to raise stock, aim farm- 
ing will always pay well, as the miners will consume all that can be raised in 
the valleys, and the prodnce will command higher rates than can be obtained 
in the States. I could pick out, here and there, all over the Territory, valleys 
that whole neighborhoods from the States could move into and find homes, 
which, in a short time, they would not exchange for their old ones. It is hard 
to tell which is more profitable here, raising cattle or horses, as I find a wide 
difference of opinion on the subject. It certainly takes less capital to start in 
the cattle business; but with capital to start on, I am inclined to believe raising 
horses and mules is the most remunerative. There are not many sheep here, 
but the business is a good one." 

"We have before us the statement of a stockman who commenced with $3,500, 
buying 100 head of cows, putting up a neat log cabin and reserving enough of 
the capital to pay his expenses for one year. At the end of the fourth year the 
increase from the little herd, at a low valuation, was worth $8,000. Another 
statement made for us by a well-known stockman, shows a net profit of $42,500 
made in six years from an investment of $13,500. We are well acquainted with 
another prominent stock grower in Lemhi Valley, who invested $11,000 in cattle 
ten years ago. A year or two later he added $9,000 to his investment, mainly 
buying cows at the then high price of $40 per head. At the end of the first 
ten years he had sold enough of the increase to get back the $20,000 invested, 
as well as to pay all the expense of carrying on the business for the ten years, 
and he has over $100,000 worth of cattle left. His loss last year was only 1 per 
cent., and it has averaged less than 3 per cent, for years at a time. 

Horses, more hardy than either sheep or cattle, because they will paw away 
the deepest snow that may cover their pasturage, are also being introduced in 
large numbers, despite the large amount of capital required for a respectable 
start. The average increase of colts is 80 per cent, of the mares. No hay or 
grain is usually fed except to the thoroughbred leaders of the herds, of which 
there are now quite a large showing. An authority on such matters estimates 
that there is room for 200,000 head of horses in Snake River Valley alone, 
where this industry seems to be taking the lead. There are at present, accord- 
ing to the official reports of the assessors, 132,922 horses in Idaho. A large 
proportion of these are native or " broncho " stock, although many herds of a 
better class are being established, and most of the ordinary herds are being 
rapidly improved by the introduction of good-blooded sires. One breeder 
spent $10,000 on the improvements of a 1,000-acre ranch near Hailey in 1888. 
He is stocking it with imported draft stallions and large native mares. 

A correspondent offers these practical suggestions on this business: " What 



IDAHO. 31- 

are wanted here are good draught-horses, and the market for such would be 
limitless at paying prices. Suppose a man, probably in connection with some 
oilier business, such as sheep raising or raising grain, were to buy fifty brood 
mares (half-breeds), which he can procure for $30 each, and one draught 
stallion, costing $1,000. He will thus have invested $2,500. He need be at no 
expense for feeding or stabling, except in the case of the stallion, and at very 
little expense for herding, if he gives the business his personal attention. The 
average of colts is 80 per cent, of the mares, so that at the end of the first year 
he would have forty colts worth $20 each, making $800, a return of over 30 
per cent, on his investment. Carry this computation forward, and suppose 
him to sell off his geldings when they are four years old, to pay expenses and 
buy additional stallions, retaining the mare colts for breeders, and it will be 
seen that in five years he will have a herd worth at least $10,000. 

WOOL-GROWING 

Idaho is making rapid strides in wool growing. From 50,000 sheep in 1880, 
her herds have increased to 350,000 in 1888. The profits of wool-growing are, 
by many, placed higher than in cattle growing. All agree that the wool-clip 
will pay every item of expense, leaving the increase a clear gain. The annual 
increase of 1,000 ewes, 2 years old and upwards, will range from 85 to 115 per 
cent,, while the increase of flocks of all ages and sexes is placed at 48 per cent. 
The loss from all causes is estimated by a majority of the prominent breeders 
with whom we have conversed, at 2 to 8 per cent. Few flocks are sheltered in 
winter, and but few receive any feed other than that gathered by themselves. 
Sheep raising is emphatically the poor man's industry, for, with a free range, 
timber at hand for shade and corrals, and, in fact, no capital needed for run- 
ning expenses after the first season, he is master of the situation if he can com- 
mand any sum from $500 upwards for the purchase of a small flock. Better 
still is the plan of leasing flocks, by which the trusty workingman without a 
dollar can secure a flock of from 1,000 to 2,000 head, for say five years, giving 
the owner one-half the increase and wool, and returning the original number 
of sheep at the termination of the lease. Many a poor man has become wealthy 
by starting in the business in this way. 

One instance of this kind is noted near Caldwell, where a poor herder, with 
practically no capital but his muscle and energy, took 1,000 sheep on the shares, 
agreeing to return the original number of ewes in four years, with half of the 
total increase, and to deliver one-half of the entire wool-clip. In 1880, the 
increase was 1,050; in 1881, 1,250; in 1882, 1,400. In July, 1880, the owners 
received $650 for their half of the wool-clip; in 1881, $1,000, and in 1882, 
$1,100. The herd numbered 7,000 at the end of the four years, worth at least 
$22,000, and the wool-clip of the last year was worth $4,500. The owners 
thus had received in four years, $5,000 worth of wool and 3,000 sheep, worth 
$10,000, or a return of $15,000 in four years, from an investment of $4,000, 
and have their original band of sheep besides. The renter had not a dollar at 
the start, but has now a $20,000 flock of sheep and a well-improved ranch. 

Robert Noble, whose flocks range near the Oregon Short Line, in Owyhee 
County, was thirteen years ago working for $30 a month. He invested a few 
years' wages in sheep, and is now accounted worth $150,000 to $200,000, 



32 IDAHO. 

It needs no argument to prove that these high, dry localities in the Northwest 
are the natural home of the sheep. It is next to impossible to originate disease 
among sheep here, where they are out in the sunshine every day in the year, 
where there is no moisture to continually saturate the hoof and produce foot- 
rot, or to saturate the fleece and invite scab and other skin diseases. 
Browsing where it is never muddy, the fleeces rarely get dirty or matted, and 
while rarely washed before shearing, the wool is often as clean as that which is 
washed in most of the States. 

Idaho sheep are being very rapidly improved „ The average weight of 
fleeces four years ago was less than four pounds, while it is now six pounds. 
Owing to" the excellent railroad facilities and rates offered by the Union Pacific 
Railway, Idaho mutton is laid down in the Eastern markets at such good time 
as to afford the wool-grower a fine profit from his wethers. Eastern buyers 
always go to the wool-growers, and as the Idaho fleece is much sought after, there 
is practically a home-market. About 2,000,000 pounds of wool was shipped 
from Idaho in 1888. One buyer of mutton sheep purchased 50,000 wethers at 
from $2.25 to $2.50 per head for shipment East from Idaho over the Union 
Pacific Railway during 1888. 

Stock men reported cattle, sheep, and horses, doing remarkably well on 
Idaho ranges up to January 15, 1889. At that date Idaho was furnishing fat 
cattle for Portland, Seattle, Tacoma, and other Pacific Coast towns, and getting " 
better prices than could be obtained in Eastern markets, whither all shipments 
were made prior to three months ago. Many thousand head of cattle were 
also shipped from Idaho to Montana ranges in 1888, that Territory having suf- 
fered a shortage on account of the previous severe winter. Idaho ranges have 
not suffered seriously on account of severe winters for many years, and are 
regarded as exceptionally reliable when compared with the more elevated Ter- 
ritories surrounding on the east, south, and north. 

DAIRYING. 

A thousand dairymen are needed right now in Idaho. There are probably 
more and better openings for dairymen in that country than for any other 
branch of rural industry. The cattle king, with his thousands of cows, often 
either buys his butter or does without, and the denizens of cities, towns, and 
mining camps now look for the butter famine as regularly as winter comes. In 
winter a prime article of ranch butter is worth from 40 to 60 cents per pound, 
and will average 35 to 40 cents the year round. Climate, pasturage, and 
water combine to^ render dairying there a very satisfactory pursuit. Cows cost 
comparatively little for their keep, and the product of butter or cheese is a clear 
gain, the increase in stock paying expenses. Good dairy cows can be purchased 
at $35 to $45 per head. 

In the center of the best grazing region in the world, with a superior 
climate, an abundance of clear, cold, running water, and whole ' ' counties of 
grass " to be had for the taking, Hailey, Boise, and other Idaho cities send to 
other States for hundreds of thousands of pounds of butter and cheese 
annually. Haste the day when this grand region may be supplying its own 
demand, and sending its car-loads of butter and cheese East by express daily. 
What an advantage the dairyman of Idaho will have over his brother of the 



IDAHO. 33 

East ! He can graze his cows on lands that cost him nothing, winter them at a 
cost of not to exceed $5 per head, and make and keep his butter and cheese in 
nice shape without the use of ice, while the dairyman of the East has $5,000 to 
$10,000 invested in every 100 acres of his pastures, expends $20 on every cow 
for winter keep, and suffers more or less annoyance and expense on account of 
the hot days and nights of his busiest season. 

Idaho has hundreds of mountain parks and glens, each with its clear, cold 
streams winding through natural meadows, and its surrounding hillsides car- 
peted with the most nutritious grasses. Here is the ideal field for the dairy- 
man. With cool nights, cold water, an atmosphere of perfect purity, free 
pasturage, the best markets in the world already developed — what more can be 
added? 

Any of the branches of stock raising thus briefly outlined present opportu- 
nities without end for speedy money-making in Idaho. The requisites are in a 
nutshell — some capital at least, a careful study of the business, and the same 
attention devoted that would be bestowed upon any legitimate business ven- 
ture of equal magnitude. So long as the world pays its greatest tribute to 
food — to bread and beef — the demand must ever keep its proportion beyond 
the supply, and these broad pastures and thousands of nestling valleys are 
ready and waiting to* respond to the magic touch of labor ana capital, judi- 
ciously applied. 

GOVERNMENT LANDS. 

There are within the Territory 13,200 square miles of valley lands situated at 
an elevation of less than 3,000 feet; 10,000 square miles between 3,000 and 4,000 
feet; 22,000 square miles between 4,000 and 5,000 feet, and 19,200 square miles 
between 5,000 and 6,000 feet. It will, therefore, be observed that of a 
total of some 15,000,000 acres of arable lands in Idaho, 8,448,000 are valley 
lands. The balance are uplands, or "plains." Of the total arable area, the 
Boise Land District, occupying the western portion of the Territory, and 
traversed by the Oregon Short Line, contains 3,500,000 acres. Of this, 
2,500,000 acres *re still open to settlement. At Boise City is the Land Office 
for this district. 

Hailey Land District, in the central portion of the Territory, also traversed 
by the Oregon Short Line, contains about 1,000,000 acres of arable land, of 
which about 750,000 acres are still vacant and open to settlement. At Hailey 
is the Land Office for this district. 

Blackfoot Land District, occupying the eastern portion of the Territory, 
and traversed by the Oregon Short Line and Utah & Northern Railway, con- 
tains about 4,500,000 acres of land susceptible of cultivation, of which 3,500,000 
acres are still open to settlement. At Blackfoot is the land office of this dis- 
trict. 

Coeur d'Alene and Lewiston Land Districts, occupying the northern part of 
the Territory, and traversed by the Oregon Short Line and Northern Pacific 
Railway, contain at least 2,500,000 acres of arable land, of which 1,500,000 
acres are open to settlement. 

The Blackfoot, Nez Perce, Lemhi, and Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservations 
occupy about 1,500,000 acres of the finest agricultural lands in Idaho. It is 



34 



1 D A H O 



believed that but few years will elapse before- large portions of these lands will 
be thrown open for settlement, as the Indians are gradually becoming con- 
verted to the plan of accepting lands in severalty. If each head of a family 
were given 320 acres, there would be enough of these reservation lands left to 
make 7,000 farms of 160 acres each. 

Here is a princely area of some 10,000,000 acres of Government lands — more 
than 60,000 farms of 160 acres each, which Uncle Sam has to give away to 
his home-born or adopted sons in Idaho. 

To give the reader a better idea of the location and nature of these lands we 
will add a brief description of the leading characteristics of them. First as to 
the valleys. The valleys of Idaho are all narrow, seldom being more than ten 
miles wide, while their length frequently extends fifty miles. The valleys, 
however, are of very rich soil, and the flat bottom-lands, or the gently -rising 
plateaus that lie along the creek or river banks, are very productive. Follow- 
ing is a list of the most prominent of these valleys, with their arable dimen- 
sions estimated by the most competent authorities : 



Name and Location of Valley. 



Length, 


Breadth, 


Miles. 


Miles. 


30 


2 


to 4 


20 


1 


to 2 


40 


3 


to 5 


60 


2 


to 10 


20 


2 


to 5 


30 


8 


to 12 


50 


1 


to 10 


70 


18 


to 25 


60 


2 


to 6 


75 


2 


to 15 


40 


2 


to 5 


70 


3 


to 6 


40 


1 


to 10 


30 


20 


to 25 


25 


10 


to 15 


20 


5 


to 10 


15 


5 


to 10 



South Fork, Snake River, Eastern Idaho 

Salt River Valley, Eastern Idaho 

Bear River Valley, Eastern Idaho 

Snake Valley, North Fork, Eastern Idaho 

Blackfoot Valley, Eastern Idaho 

Round Valley, Eastern Idaho 

Wood River Valley, Central Idaho 

Camas Prairie, Central Idaho 

Boise Valley, Western Idaho 

Payette Valley, Western Idaho, (including Long Valley) 

Weiser Valley, Western Idaho 

Lemhi Valley, Northeastern Idaho 

Pahsimari Valley, Northeastern Idaho 

'Northern Camas Prairie, North Idaho 

Potlach Valley, North Idaho 

Palouse Valley, North Idaho 

St. Joseph Valley, North Idaho 



The valleys mentioned above are not all that are suitable *for settlement. 
We could name over a score or more in addition, where the opportunities 
are fully as advantageous as in these. Beautiful little vales and cosy parks 
hidden among the hills, are innumerable, while sheep ranches, cattle ranches, 
dairy farms, poultry ranches, and apiaries could be established in a thousand 
localities, and will be as soon as the advantages that await the settlers in Idaho 
are more fully known. 

The northern portion of the Territory, included between the Clearwater and 
the British Possessions, is chiefly mountainous, interspersed with prairie lands, 
and, as already noted, a number of lakes, some of them of exquisite beauty. 
Along the shores of these lakes and in the river bottoms are good arable lands. 
North Palouse, Genesee, Paradise, and Potlatch Valleys, in Nez Perces 
County, are rapidly filling up with an intelligent and thrifty farming ' popu- 
lation. In the neighborhood of Lewiston, fruits and vegetables of all 
kinds are raised in perfection. Peach trees have been known to bloom there 
in February. Lewiston and Moscow are the chief distributing points for this 
agricultural area. 



IDAHO. 85 

In this North Idaho region, crops are raised without irrigation. The pre- 
cipitation of moisture on the mountains is said to be greater than on the low- 
lands, but the hills and uplands adjacent to the great masses of mountains 
receive some of the supply condensed by the mountains themselves, and the 
lands have been found to be favored by this condition to an extent sufficient 
to warrant agricultural operations independent of irrigation. 

The more central region, between the Boise River and the Clearwater, con- 
sists of table-lands naturally rich in grasses, heavily timbered mountains and 
fertile valleys. The best known of these are the Clearwater, Salmon, Payette, 
Weiser, Boise, Garden and Long Valleys, all presenting rare opportunities for 
ranching and stock raising; grain and cereals of all kinds are produced. Long 
Valley is seventy-five miles long and about fifteen wide. It is traversed longi- 
tudinally by the North Fork of the Payette. There are few settlements. The 
soil is rich, and offers excellent inducements to those desiring to go into the 
business of dairying and*stock raising. Upper and Lower Squaw Creeks and 
Horseshoe Bend form one continuous valley country, where grain can be raised 
in abundance, and where there are ranges capable of sustaining many herds of 
stock. These valleys are all well watered, possessing extraordinary fertility of 
soil. With the aid of irrigation these lands produce abundant crops of cereals, 
as well as the fruits and vegetables of the Middle States. There is sufficient 
timber to contribute to the salubrity and humidity of the climate. 

Between Boise Valley and the southern boundary line there are fertile val- 
leys traversing sage-brush plains and table-lands. The proportion of timber in 
this region is small, being confined chiefly to the lines of streams and mountain 
sides. Three-fourths of this vast surface is capable of reclamation by irriga- 
tion, and will produce abundant crops. In the southwest section of this dis- 
trict are several fertile valleys tributary to the Owyhee. 

The area formed by the junction of the Boise, Payette, Weiser, Snake and 
Owyhee Valleys, in Southwestern Idaho, is a vast agricultural region. In this 
immense basin, formed by the confluence of Idaho's great rivers, is a compact 
body of farming lands, millions of acres in extent — the largest agricultural 
area between the great prairies and the plains of the Columbia. In soil, 
climate, and facilities for irrigation it is unsurpassed. It is mainly the rich, 
warm loam that produces sage-brush to perfection in its natural state, and all 
the cereals, fruits and vegetables of this latitude when cultivated. There are 
acres upon acres of apples, plums, pears, peaches and small fruits, and along- 
side of them, almost as far as the eye can reach, are stretches of wild farming 
lands awaiting claimants and cultivation. Several large canals are being con- 
structed to water this region, notably that projected and managed by Mr. 
Howard Sebree, near Caldwell. It is already twenty-four miles long, twenty 
feet wide on the bottom, and four feet deep, and affords water for a large 
region hitherto worthless. 

South of Snake River, in Southern Central Idaho, is Goose Creek Valley, 
which extends north and south from Snake River to the -Utah line. This is 
the most extensive valley in Cassia County, and one of the finest in the Terri- 
tory. There are now over 3,000 acres under cultivation, and with the water 
that is in Goose Creek it is thought that 10,000 acres can be cultivated. The 
valley is about five miles in width at its southern extremity, and widens quite 



36 IDAHO. 

rapidly towards the north, until it opens into Snake River Valley. Extending 
from Snake River up Goose Creek is a body of over 200,000 acres of the finest 
land, that only requires water to make it one of the best agricultural districts 
in the Territory. 

Referring to this Cassia County region, a well-informed settler writes as 
follows: "It is bounded by latitude 42 Q on the south, and by Snake River on 
the north. Covering about 5,000 square miles of territory, more than one-half 
of its area is valley land. Its southern portion is crossed by mountain ranges, 
among which are the Sublette, Black Pine, Goose Creek, Rock, and Salmon 
Creek Mountains, Mount Harrison, and Mount Independence in the Goose 
Creek Range, rising to an elevation of about 10,000 feet. The most important 
valleys are those of Raft River, Goose Creek, and Salmon Creek, although 
many smaller basins of surpassing beauty and fertility are found. The county 
is drained by Snake River and its tributaries Salmon Creek, Rock Creek, Dry 
Creek, Cottonwood, Goose Creek, Marsh Creek, Raft River, and many smaller 
streams. Lying in the. central part of the Upper Mountain District, in an 
immense depression, traversed in every portion by the balmy Chinook winds, 
these valley lands possess a mild climate, healthful and pleasant as any on the 
footstool. Cyclones, blizzards, and extreme changes of temperature are 
unknown. The soil, deep and fertile as the Valley of the Nile, will, with 
irrigation, produce all fruits, grains, and vegetables known to the temperate 
zone in great profusion and of surpassing excellence. Washed on the northern 
edge by a great river, a moderate expenditure of capital in the construction of 
canals and diversion of water would turn these valleys into a veritable Eden. 
From such canals water could be furnished to work the vast placer deposits 
along Snake River, and almost unlimited jvater-power be developed for manu- 
facturing purposes. Recognizing all this, and realizing the benefits of such 
work to its full extent, the citizens of Cassia County have had a preliminary 
survey made for a proposed grand canal from Snake River. Said survey has 
demonstrated the fact that, at an expenditure of much less than $5 per acre, 
more than 1,000,000 acres of this land can be reclaimed, and to this attractive, 
immensely remunerative, and entirely safe investment, the attention of capital 
is invited. In this county are also found large quarries of marble and building 
stone, promising gold, silver, lead, and coal prospects. Thorough investigation 
and better transportation facilities will probably develop immense mines of 
the precious and base metals. With a sparse population at present of 4,000, 
this county can be made to sustain at least 200,000 inhabitants; diversified by 
scenery sublime, picturesque, and beautiful, ' ' a land fair and inviting in the 
eyes of all men," it must in a decade hence r become the home of teeming 
thousands, the seat of great marts of industry and commerce, this superb and 
incomparable County of Cassia." 

On the 19th day of July, 1888, Senator George Hearst said in the Senate of 
the United States: "Snake River Valley alone was estimated to be able to 
support 2,000,000 of* people. * * * I have been over all the Territories 
west of the Rocky Mountains as much, perhaps, as any other man, and I think 
Idaho has more agricultural land in it than all the other Territories there. " 

Surrounding Mountain Home, in Southern Central Idaho, is a tract of about 
100,000 acres — nearly all Government land — of the very cream of Idaho 



IDAHO. 37 

uplands. It is unsurpassed for fertility and requires less irrigation than the 
average of such lands. A company is now constructing a canal to water a 
portion of this splendid tract. Good mining markets are convenient, and the 
Oregon Short Line crosses this land. 

In the Wood River region are Wood River Valley and Camas Prairie, the 
former an ideal mountain valley, two to ten miles wide and fifty miles long,' 
and the latter seventy miles long and twenty miles wide. This Camas Prairie 
is not to be confounded with the prairie of the same name in Idaho County. 
It is about twenty miles west of Hailey. Through its southern portion runs 
Camas Creek, a tributary of Wood River. The whole prairie is magnificently 
watered, and, in season, covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, making it a 
paradise for stock. The soil is a rich black loam. Irrigation is said to be 
unnecessary on a large proportion of the lands, for the reason that there is a 
heavy clay sub-soil which holds water and moisture. The resources of Camas 
Prairie have been thus described : " The numerous creeks which are flowing 
through the valley keep the clay soil wet, so that however dry the top soil may 
look, you will always find plenty of moisture within a few inches of the sur- 
face. In demonstration of this fact we have only to say that water in endless 
quantities can be found almost anywhere on the prairie, at a depth of from 
two to eight feet below the surface. Many settlers have wells with sufficient 
water for all stock at that depth. This condition of soil renders the lands of 
this prairie very productive. Immense crops of oats, wheat, barley, and all 
small grain, and all kinds of vegetables and fruits can be grown easily and to 
great profit. The natural grasses yield wonderful crops of hay, and tame 
grasses, wherever tried, flourish amazingly. Timothy, alfalfa, and clover have 
been sown, and have proved to be big croppers and very hardy ingrowth. 
We know of fields of timothy which were sown on sod that yielded two or 
three tons per acre. Tame grasses and all small grains find their natural ele- 
ments here, and consequently yield enormously. At Armstrong's Willow 
Creek ranch, in 1886, five acres of volunteer wheat yielded 522 bushels, or at 
the rate of over one hundred and four bushels per acre. This is, of course, an 
extreme case — in fact, it stands unequaled, even on Camas Prairie, that 
garden spot of Idaho — but several instances could be cited where the yield of 
volunteer wheat has reached seventy-five bushels per acre. The soil is so well 
adapted to the raising of potatoes and vegetables that a yield of less than one 
ton of potatoes per acre is a great disappointment, while of rutabagas, 
carrots, etc., less than two tons is not considered an average crop. And this, 
it must be borne in mind, is in fresh plowed ground that five years ago had 
never felt the tramp of civilized men. Squire Abbott, one of the residents of 
Camas Prairie, sowed one pound of wheat which he received from the East, 
and, on harvesting and cleaning up, realized one hundred pounds of nice, clean 
wheat. Barley sown on sod last year produced from fifty to sixty-five bushels 
to the acre, without any irrigation. All kinds of garden vegetables, such as 
beets, turnips, peas, beans, onions, cabbages, etc., are successfully and very 
profitably cultivated, the crop is monstrous, the quality par excellence, and the 
market for all that is not needed for home consumption is sure, and at paying 
prices. In fact the soil of Camas Prairie can not be excelled in any State or 
Territory in the Union." Wood River Valley requires irrigation, and many 



38 IDAHO. 

miles of canal are annually being constructed to reclaim its broad areas of rich 
lands. 

In Northwestern Idaho, agriculture ably supplements the mining industry 
in enriching the country. The Salmon River, rising in Sawtooth Mountains, 
north of Wood River, enters on its southwestern border, and pursuing a zigzag 
course in a general northeasterly direction, receives the waters of ten large 
creeks besides the East Fork. These streams, together with Lost River and its 
tributaries, flow through thousands of acres of arable land still uncultivated. 
In Round Valley, containing thirty square miles of arable and grazing land, 
but a small portion has been cultivated; in Lost River Valley, containing in 
Custer County, about 100 square miles of arable land, 4,000 acres of hay and 
grain were cultivated in 1887; in Pahsimari, containing about fifty square 
miles of arable land, comparatively none is under cultivation. A few families 
have settled in Pahsimari — a valley forty miles in length by ten miles in average 
width — but beyond a few tons of hay, grain, etc., for home use, nothing has 
been produced. This valley alone will furnish homes and occupation for 
hundreds of people. Lost River, from its source to the point where it sinks 
into the lava beds, runs for sixty-five miles through a fine valley, rich in natural 
resources. Since the mining excitement of recent years, 800 people have 
flocked thither — of whom, perhaps, one-half are engaged in agriculture. With 
homes to build, land to inclose and bring under the beneficent effects of irri- 
gation, the newcomers still found time the first season to cut about 5,000 tons 
of wild hay, and raise 10,000 bushels of grain. The grain crop this year will 
quadruple this amount, Farming in Round Valley has been liberally rewarded. 
The acreage under cultivation has steadily increased for five years, until this 
year its contribution to the county's wealth is 30,000 bushels of grain, and 800 
tons of hay, beside thousands of pounds of vegetables. Men who came here 
penniless a few years ago, now own ranches with houses, equipments, and live 
stock, and are worth from $3,000 to $15,000. 

Oats is the principal grain raised in Northeastern Idaho, being of a very 
hardy, solid character, and for that reason taking the place of barley. Wheat 
could be raised as profitably as oats, if there were only flour mills in the country 
to grind it. There is no lack of a market, as 400,000 pounds of flour are 
annually imported to meet the consumption, at prices ranging from $4.50 to 
$6 per hundred, according to locality and season. Hay yields about one and 
a half tons to the acre, in its wild state. Alfalfa, blue-grass, red-top, and timothy 
have been successfully sown. The profits accruing to farmers will give no sur- 
prise, when it is understood that oats bring $1.25 per bushel; hay, $20 per ton; 
potatoes, 2 cents per pound; cabbage, 4 cents; onions, 8 cents, and turnips, 
1 cent per pound. Other farm produce is sold as follows: Eggs at 50 cents 
per dozen; butter at 40 to 50 cents per pound, and chickens at 50 cents apiece. 
Not only is a ready market found at these prices, but annually thousands of 
dollars' worth of hay, grain, butter, eggs, and poultry are imported from 
other countries, or Utah, to meet home demand. Hereafter, the tendency of 
prices will be slightly downward, still the margin left for profits will be 
extraordinarily large. 

Lemhi Valley, the largest, best settled, and most extensively cultivated 
valley in Northeastern Idaho, is seventy miles in length, and varies in width 



IDAHO. 89 

from three to six miles, comprising within its limits bottom and bench lands 
of unsurpassed fertility, adapted by reason of its low altitude and sheltered 
situation to the successful cultivation of all cereals, vegetables, and fruits. 
The principal crops raised in Lemhi Valley are wheat, oats, barley, and 
potatoes. The wheat crop of Lemhi Valley has never yet proved a failure, 
yielding from forty to fifty bushels of fine, hard, No. 1 wheat, weighing fifty- 
eight to sixty-two and one-half pounds to the bushel. A steadily increasing 
home-demand has created a good market at $1.20 per bushel. This has been 
the ruling price for a number of years. Oats have been for years a never- 
failing crop, yielding from forty-five to fifty-five bushels to the acre, of 
heavy, full kernels, weighing forty-five pounds to the bushel, and com- 
manding ready sale at from H to 2 cents per pound, with the demand 
always in excess of the supply. Barley has been but little cultivated, 
although as safe and certain a crop as wheat or oats, yielding from thirty- 
five to forty -five bushels to. the acre, and selling at 2 cents per pound. 
Lemhi Valley has been justly famous for the superior quality of potatoes 
grown there, finding a ready market and sale everywhere in the mining 
camps. The yield of potatoes in this valley has averaged over 250 bushels to 
the acre, and the market price varies from $1.50 to $4.50 per hundred pounds, 
according to season. The writer has seen some of these tubers weighing four 
pounds and eight ounces, and was assured by the producer that he had 
bushels of the same kind in the field, all sound and solid potatoes. During the 
seventeen years in which Lemhi Valley has been farmed, no failure of this crop 
has ever been reported. 

Then in Eastern Idaho are Bear Valley, Snake Valley, Malad Valley, and 
others, altogether affording room for thousands of settlers, who will find the 
conditions much the same as in the other valleys described. The Snake Valley, 
near Eagle Rock, and Blackfoot, the largest irrigating canals in the Territory, 
are being constructed, reclaiming lands for many new settlers. This is the 
famous potato region from which about 1,000 car-loads of potatoes are 
marketed annually." 

It should also be remembered that the mountain slopes of Idaho are watered 
by abundant streams, and checkered with alternate tracts of forest and rich 
prairie. Even in the least favored regions are localities adapted to specific 
branches of agricultural enterprise. These will ultimately be occupied by a 
thrifty farming population who are not afraid of severe winters — for it is here 
that the snow-fall is greatest, and the growing season short. 

HOW TO OBTAIN GOVERNMENT LAND. 

Preemption. — Heads of families, widows or single persons (male or female) 
over the age of twenty-one years, citizens of the United States or who have 
declared their intention to become such, may enter and purchase not exceeding 
160 acres under the preemption laws. A fee of $3 is required within thirty 
days after making settlement, and within one year, actual residence and culti- 
vation of the tract must be shown, whereupon the preemptor is entitled to 
purchase the same at $1.25 per acre. A preemptor may submit proofs of 
residence at any time after six months, and obtain title to his land. 



40 IDAHO. 

Homesteads. — Any person qualified as above is entitled to enter a quarter 
section (160 acres), or less quantity of public land, under the homestead laws. 
The applicant must pay the legal fee and that part of the commissions required, 
as follows : Fee for 160 acres, $10; commission, $6; fee for 80 acres, $5; com- 
mission, $4. Within six months the homesteader must take up his residence 
upon the land and reside thereupon, and cultivate the same for five years con- 
tinuously. Final proof can not be made until the expiration of five years from 
date of entry, and must be made within seven years. A settler may prove his 
residence at any time after six months, and purchase the land under the 
preemption laws, if desired. 

Tree Claims. — Under the timber culture laws, not more than 160 acres on 
any one section, entirely devoid of timber can be entered. The qualifications 
of applicants are the same as under the preemption and homestead laws. 
Land-office charges are $14 for 160 acres or more than 80 acres, when entry is 
made, and $4 at final proof. Land to be entered must be entirely void of tim- 
ber. Party making entry of 160 acres is required to break or plow five acres 
during the first year, and five acres during the second year. The five acres 
broken or plowed the first year must be cultivated the second year, and be 
planted in timber during the third year. The five acres broken or plowed the 
second year, must be cultivated the third year and planted in timber the fourth 
year. At the end of eight years, or within two years after that period, proof 
by two creditable witnesses must be adduced, showing that there were at the 
end of eight years, at least 675 living, thrifty trees on each of the ten acres 
required to be planted ; also not less than 2,700 trees were planted to each of 
the ten acres. Fruit trees are not considered timber within the meaning of 
this Act. 

Desert Land Act. — Any person possessing the aforesaid qualifications may 
file his oath with the Register and Receiver of the land office in the district in 
which any land is located that he intends to reclaim, not to exceed 640 acres of 
said land, in a compact form, by conducting water upon it within three years 
of the date of said oath, and by paying to the Receiver the sum of 25 cents per 
acre for all the land claimed, may enter said lands under the Desert Land Act. 
At any time within three years a patent can be obtained by making ^roof that 
he has reclaimed said land, and paying the additional sum of $1 per acre. 
This Act applies to desert lands in Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and 
Oregon. 

All these Acts are liable to be materially changed — some of them repealed — 
during 1889. Much more stringent conditions will be placed upon the disposal 
of all public lands. It therefore behooves the home-seeker to make his choice 
of Government land quickly. 

RAILWAYS. 

Idaho is now thoroughly accessible from either the east or west, via the 
Union Pacific Railway. The great through Portland route of the Union Pacfic 
conveys the passenger from the Missouri River to the most remote station in 
Idaho in three days, while from Portland eastward to the heart of the Terri- 
tory consumes only twenty-four hours. Salt Lake City is reached in twenty- 
four hours and San Francisco in about sixty-five hours. 



IDAHO. 1 41 



OREGON SHORT LINE RAILWAY. 



This branch of the Union Pacific enters the Territory from "Wyoming at a 
point about twenty-rive miles east of Montpelier, Bear Lake County, and runs 
in a westerly direction through the Counties of Bear Lake, Oneida, Bingham, 
Alturas, Ada, and Washington, and passing through the following towns: 
Montpelier, Soda Springs, McCammon, Pocatello, American Falls, Shoshone, 
Mountain Home, Nampa, Caldwell, Payette, and Weiser, to the crossing of 
the Snake River near Huntington, which is the dividing line at this point 
between Idaho and Oregon. This line has tributary to it all the large mining, 
farming, and grazing regions of Southern and Central Idaho. Length of road 
in Idaho, 481.04 miles. 

At the town of Shoshone, on the Oregon Short Line, commences a branch of 
this road running up Wood River in a northerly direction, through the towns 
of Bellevue and Hailey, to Ketchum, which is the terminus at present. This 
road does the business of the great Wood River mining region. Length of 
this branch, sixty-nine and one-quarter miles. 

. UTAH & NORTHERN RAILWAY. 

This is another branch of the Union Pacific Railway, entering the Territory 
at the Utah line, near the town of Franklin, and. runs in a northern direction 
through Oneida County, to Pocatello, where it crosses the Oregon Short 
Line, and continues in a northerly direction through Bingham County, 
passing through the towns of Blackfoot, Eagle Rock, Camas, and Beaver 
Canon, to the Montana line. It affords easy access from Salt Lake City and 
Ogden, and from the cities of Montana. It is developing a grand agricul- 
tural, grazing, and mining region in Eastern Idaho. Length of road 206.49 
miles. 

IDAHO CENTRAL RAILWAY. 

This road leaves the Oregon Short Line at the town of Nampa, and runs 
easterly to Boise City, the capital of Idaho. Length of road nineteen and one- 
half miles 

OREGON RAILWAY & NAVIGATION COMPANY. 

This is another branch of the Union Pacific Railway, entering the Territory 
about three miles west of Moscow, which is at present the terminus of the road. 
Length in Idaho, three miles. 

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY. 

This road enters the Territory from Montana at the town of Heron, and 
passes through Hope, Sand Point, Granite, and Rathdrum, the county seat of 
Kootenai County. On the route it passes almost around the beautiful Pend 
d'Oreille Lake, one arm of which it crosses by a trestle bridge, 8,400 feet in 
length. There are eighty-eight miles of this road in Idaho. 

C03UR D'ALENE RAILWAY 

begins near the old mission of this name and runs in a southeasterly direc- 
tion to the town of Wardner, in Shoshone County. Length of the road, 
thirteen and one-third miles. 



42 IDAHO. 

SPOKANE & IDAHO RAILWAY 

commences at the Idaho line and runs in a southeasterly direction to Cceur 
d'Alene Lake, which is used by this company to transport freight by steamers 
to the Coeur d'Alene mining region. Length of this road, thirteen and one- 
half miles. 

The last two as well as the Spokane & Palouse R. R. , all in Northern Idaho, 
are still being extended. 

Total miles of railroad in Idaho, (February, 1889,) about 1,000 miles. 

The superb river and valley system of Idaho renders the Territory an excel- 
lent field for railway extension, and all of the desirable regions can easily be 
tapped by branches of the Oregon Short Line. All the outlying settlements are 
now conveniently reached by stage and wagon roads connecting with the rail- 
ways named. 

MANUFACTURING. 

A grand field is open here for manufacturing enterprise. With water-power 
sufficient to turn the burrs and spindles of the world, inexhaustible quantities 
of iron, coal, copper, and other minerals, forests unexcelled, and wool, hides, 
ores, and other raw materials in any desired quantity, Idaho may well be inves- 
tigated by those having capital and experience to expend on manufactures. 
With the exception of some two dozen saw-mills, and about the same num- 
ber of flouring mills this industry is almost wholly undeveloped in Idaho. 

There is a production of over 2,000,000 pounds of wool from the rapidly 
increasing flocks of Idaho annually. From experiments made under similar 
conditions in neighboring States and Territories, woolen-mills can undoubtedly 
be made to pay in Idaho. A magnificent and unlimited water-power can 
easily be developed at the American Falls of Snake River, at a station of the 
same name on the Oregon Short Line. The vast volume of the river here has 
a descent of some fifty feet immediately under the railway bridge spanning 
the stream. Good openings, with ample water-power, are also presented to 
such an industry at Hailey, Boise City, Caldwell, and other points. 

There is not a foundry or machine-shop for 500 miles along the Oregon Short 
Line and Utah & Northern Railways, and several are needed. With coal, iron, 
zinc, lead, and all the other ores in the mountains, Idaho should be the metal- 
lurgist's, iron founder's, and machinist's own chosen country. 

Thousands of hides from Idaho go East annually to be tanned, and returned 
for use at the points from whence they were originally shipped. The neces- 
sary bark and other adjuncts for successful tanning are plentiful and cheap.- 
Several tanneries would find a profitable field in Idaho. 

Abundant materials are found for pottery and the manufacture of glass, but 
both these articles are shipped from the far East. One institution engaged in 
bottling the famous Idanha mineral water at Soda Springs, Idaho, uses many 
car-loads of bottles annually. 

As adjuncts to slaughter and packing houses, stearine candles (used in the 
mines) and soaps should be made with much profit to the owners. There is 
one small soap factory at Caldwell. 

More lumber-mills, planing-mills, and sash and door factories are needed. 
There is a large and constantly increasing demand for products of such 



IDAHO. 43 

factories, which are now largely shipped from distant States. The raw material 
of an excellent quality is practically inexhaustible. 

Improved roller flouring-mills are much needed at numerous points, among 
which Hailey, Caldwell, Payette, and Weiser present particularly favorable 
openings. Water-power is abundant at these points, and the supply of grain 
would be ample to employ mills of fair size. Idaho wheat is now, to some 
extent, shipped eastward and westward 300 to 500 miles, and then returned as 
flour. 

No finer openings exist anywhere than that in the Boise and other valleys for 
the canning of fruits and vegetables. The choicest fruits and vegetables are 
produced, and train loads shipped to outside markets, while the consumption 
of canned goods shipped from California and the East aggregate many car- 
loads annually. 

The reduction of precious metal ores presents a vast field for capital in Idaho. 
The districts in which various kinds of machinery could be introduced at an 
assured great profit are probably more numerous in Idaho than anywhere else 
in the world. The field is almost wholly new, and it is inviting to a wonderful 
degree. 

EDUCATIONAL ADVANTAGES. 

The cause of education is keeping pace with the material development of the 
Territory. There are at present 387 school districts, with 365 schools, and 268 
school houses costing an aggregate of about $350,000, and a school population 
(between five and twenty-five years of age) of 18,506. Expenditures for school 
purposes in 1888, $138,662. The school system consists of a Territorial 
Superintendent, County Superintendents, and District Trustees. 

The general school law provides that all moneys accruing from the sale of all 
lands heretofore given, or which may hereafter be given, by the Congress of 
the United States for school purposes, in said Territory, and all moneys that 
may hereafter be given and appropriated by the Congress of the United States 
for school purposes, unless the same by special provision shall be appropriated 
for the establishment of a university or other high school, together with any 
moneys by legacy or otherwise donated for educational purposes, and appro- 
priated to the general fund, and all moneys accruing to the Territory from 
unclaimed moneys from the estate of deceased persons, shall be set apart, and 
shall constitute an irreducible and indivisible Territorial General School Fund, 
the interest accruing from which only shall be appropriated to the respective 
counties of the Territory in the manner hereinafter specified and directed. 

For the purpose of establishing and maintaining public schools in the several 
counties in the Territory, it is the duty of the County Commissioners of each 
county, at the time of levying the taxes for county and Territorial purposes, to 
levy a tax of not less than 2 mills nor more than 8 mills on each and every 
dollar of taxable property, in their respective counties, for school purposes. 

The proceeds of fines and forfeitures, and certain licenses, also go to the 
County School Fund. 

Boise City, Hailey, Bellevue, Ketchum, Shoshone, and Lewiston each con- 
stitute an independent school district. Each has a graded school in every way 
creditable to the Territory. The Boise City building cost $50,000; that at 



44 IDAHO. 

Hailey, $30,000; and Bellevue, Shoshone, Lewiston, Ketchum, and Caldwell 
each have a building costing from $8,000 to $12,000. Religious, sectarian, and 
political doctrines are expressly forbidden to be taught. 

Teachers' salaries vary according to locality and character of the school. In 
agricultural sections they range from $50 to $75 per month ; in mining 
regions from $60 to $125, and in the larger towns from $65 to $150 per 
month. 

The schools generally are better than could, be naturally expected in so new 
a country. Great care is exercised in the selection of teachers, and the home- 
seeker coming to Idaho may be sure of finding abundant educational facilities 
in the elementary and graded schools of the Territory. 

By the Act of February 18, 1881, Congress granted to the Territory of Idaho, 
seventy-two sections of public lands for school purposes, under certain restric 
tions. These, with the 3,000,000 acres of school lands (sixteenth and thirty- 
sixth sections) allowed under the general law, will undoubtedly at some future 
day form the basis of a sound, substantial school system. 

By Act of the last Legislature every parent or guardian is required to send 
his child to school for at least twelve weeks in each school year, eight of which 
must be consecutive. This Act applies only to children between the ages of 
eight and fourteen years, and who reside within two miles of the school -house by 
the nearest traveled road. A failure to comply with the said law subjects the 
parent or guardian to a fine of not less than $5, nor more than $50. There are, 
under certain conditions, exceptions made in the law, and the board of trustees 
in each district are permitted to excuse the parents from complying with the 
provisions of the law. The Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and 
Catholics have also established sectarian schools, and numerous private schools, 
some of a high grade of excellence, exist. 

As one instance showing the growth in school matters in Idaho, the Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction, in his report for 1888, says: "I find from the 
files of this office that in 1870 the total number of children of school age was 
only 888; we now have 20,130. In that year only $9,226.06 was spent for 
education, this year over $138,662.56 was expended. Then we had but 29 
districts; now they number 337. Statistics may be deemed by many uninterest- 
ing, but the above seem to be convincing in proof that our school financial 
interests and population are marvelously increasing and must be provided for 
energetically." 

PRECIOUS METALS. 

The precious metal belt of Idaho is from 50 to 150 miles wide and 350 
miles long. This is not only the largest continuous or compact gold and silver 
region in the world, but it is believed also to be the richest. From a compara- 
tively small area of this region, and from imperfectly and mainly only slightly 
developed mines, has thus far been taken the princely sum of $129,000,000 of 
gold and silver. The present yield is about $9,500,000 per annum. Idaho has 
steadily advanced during the past five years from the ninth to the fifth place in 
the list of bullion-producing States, and her record for 1889 will, without doubt, 
place her only fourth from the top. 

Every variety of gold and silver ores known to the science of mining are 
found in Idaho. She has also produced in large quantities the richest ores ever 



IDAHO, 



45 



mined. Idaho is the home of the famous Elmore, which, with a small 20-stamp 
mill, in thirty days, has poured out $500,000 — the largest month's yield, it is 
claimed, of one mine with a mill of this limited capacity yet recorded in the 
world. Among her tens of thousands of quartz veins already found in Idaho 
is the Morning Star, whose shipment of 100 tons, containing $100,000, is fresh 
in the minds of many; the Poor Man, a near neighbor of the Morning Star, added 
another brilliant achievement to those in mining history by yielding $4,000,000 
— $1,000,000 for each 100 feet of its 400 feet of depth — in a comparatively brief 
period. Idaho, too, contains the noted Atlanta ledge, which, traced for miles 
on the surface, is 50 to 100 feet wide, and has shipped 8,000 tons (a mere frac- 
tion of its product) 1,500 miles to Omaha, where $700,000 were extracted from 
it. Here is also the Custer ledge, the giant among American mines, from 
whose unparalleled outcrop four men, during eleven months, quarried ore 
which yielded $1,000,000. Among other mineral productions briefly noted in 
pages following is a small area of the placer ground of one county which has 
produced $23,000,000 in gold — more than a million a year for twenty years — 
and other larger areas which in years to come will many times duplicate the 
total past placer yield of $70,000,000. Past development is not presented in 
this work to carry the impression that vast things have invariably been accom- 
plished; but these facts and the additional fact that a mere handful of pio- 
neers have here contributed $129,000,000 in gold and silver to the world's 
tangible wealth; that they have done it in a region for a number of years 1,500 
miles, and more recently 300 miles, distant from railways, and a region up to 
six years ago infested by hostile savages, and mercilessly bled by mining stock- 
jobbers — these facts argue that nature has been prodigal indeed, and they are 
potent in guaranteeing that Idaho, penetrated by railways, fostered by capital 
and peopled by the thousands she has room for, will be the peer of any mining 
region in the universe. 

The space at our disposal in this little volume is, of course, too limited to 
admit of more than a glance at the more prominent districts and at a very few of 
the leading mines therein. 



IDAHO'S MINERAL PRODUCT FOR 1888. 
H. F. Wild, assayer in charge of the United States Assay office at Boise City, 
Idaho, gives the following estimate of the product of gold, silver, and lead in 
Idaho, by counties, during 1888: 



Counties. 


Value of 
Gold. 


Value of 

Silver at 

Coining 

Rate. 


Pounds of 
Lead. 


Value of 
Lead at 
4.94 1-6. 


Total Value 

of Gold, 

Silver and 

Lead. 


Ada 


$ 2,336 
375,788 

71,000 
401,797 
6,000 
220,000 
350,000 
600,000 

17,000 
130,000 
350,288 

28,000 


$ 48 

649,186 

100 

112,000 

100 

1,061,300 

3,500 

360,000 

500 

52.000 

1,327,500 






$ 2,384 

1,524,974 

71,100 

513,797 

6,100 

1,631,300 

353,500 

1,660,000 

17,500 




10,000,000 


$ 500,000 


















7,000,000 


350,000 




Lemhi 


14,000,000 


700,000 


Owyhee 

Shoshone 

Washington. 






132,000 

3,471.788 

28,000 


47,840,000 


1,794,000 










Total 


82,552,209 


$3,571,234 


78,340,000 


$3,344,000 


$9,467,443 





46 IDAHO. 

There are those who claim Mr. Wild's figures are too low, particularly as to 
the product of Alturas County, but as he has the very best facilities for getting 
the information, we believe his estimate is as nearly correct as it is possible to 
get them. Great improvements have been made in prominent mines in 
Alturas, Owyhee and Shoshone Counties, and the great reduction made by the 
Union Pacific Company in freight rates on ores, late in 1888, combine to insure 
an output of at least $12,000,000 from Idaho in 1889. 

WOOD RIVER DISTRICT, 

In Central Idaho, is probably the most noted, although one of the last to be 
opened up, in the Territory. Wood River drains a region 140 miles from 
north to south, and 75 miles east and west. It is a clear, strong current, about 
150 feet wide, and from 3 to 4 feet deep. Its principal tributaries are the 
Malad, Little Wood River, Rock Creek, Silver Creek, Elk Creek, Deer Creek, 
Warm Springs, North Fork, Boulder, Cherry, and White Cloud Creeks, nearly 
all passing through valuable mineral country, and their romantic valleys and 
canons leading right and left by easy grades two to twenty miles up from 
the main stream to the mines already discovered. The mining districts 
rise from an elevation of 5,200 feet at Bellevueto between 8,000 to 9,000 feet at 
Galena, in a distance of forty-five miles. The Oregon Short Line reaches the 
heart of this region at Hailey and Ketchum. 

Wood River is the center of one of the most extensive belts of heavy galena 
ores in the world. Five years' developments prove that district after district 
of argentiferous galena exist all the way from the low hills at the base of the 
Wood River Range northward to the divide of the Wood and Salmon Rivers, 
a distance of 45 miles, and almost continuously from Bay Horse District 
(described elsewhere) westerly to the south tributaries of the Boise River. 
This great silver-bearing region is 20 to 50 miles in width, and 130 to 140 miles 
in length, and takes in such noted districts as Smoky, Sawtooth, Lava Creek, 
and East Fork, besides all the Wood River tributaries named above. This 
region has produced, in the past 7 years, not less than $17,000,000 in silver and 
lead, and is now producing at the rate of over $3,500,000 per year. This out- 
put is rapidly increasing year by year, and future years may, and probably will, 
see the product of Leadville exceeded by that of Wood River. Wood River 
contains a great many mines of various degrees of importance. There are no 
Anacondas, no Granite Mountains, no Ontarios, any one of which would make 
a camp, but which would require the utmost resources of a rich corporation to 
manage. As far as discovered, the mines of Wood River are of more moderate 
size, and require far less capital to handle them. It has been well said that 
Wood River is a poor man's camp. As a prominent authority on mining- 
matters says: "I think it far more advantageous to a mining region that 
a miner of small means, or a company of such, can obtain and work ground 
from which they can take a small amount of paying ore cheaply and at a profit. 
A hundred mines that produce a ton of ore daily are of infinitely more 
advantage than one that produces 100 tons, because they benefit a more-deserv- 
ing and useful class, and their aggregate daily product is subject to less 
variations in quantity. The most encouraging and laudable thing about Wood 



IDAHO. 47 

River mines is that a large number of them are worked by poor men, who pay 
their expenses from the sale of ore, and while they maintain themselves and 
develop their claims, they help support the community and give dignity to the 
trade of mining. In this respect Wood River is almost without a peer. As I 
said, Wood River is a country of many mines; so many, in fact, that if any 
one ceases production it does not materially effect the aggregate." 

The Wood River region is popularly divided into three separate districts, 
each of which possesses some distinguishing feature. The largest veins and 
richest ores have been found on the west side of the river, and this section is 
called the Bullion and Warm Springs Mineral belt, embracing such prominent 
camps as Broadford, Bullion, Deer Creek, Greenhorn, and Warm Springs 
Creek. The formation is quartzite, slate, and porphyry. The ores are galena 
and carbonates, 60 to 80 per cent, lead, with some antimony and copper, and 
yielding $100 to $400 of silver per ton. On the same side of Wood River, and 
southwest from the above belt, are the Ornament Hill and Willow Creek dis- 
tricts, embracing tremendous quartz ledges in a granite belt containing gold, 
silver, copper, lead, and antimony. The Ornament Hill mines have the most 
noted free-milling ores along Wood River, and are fabulously rich in silver, 
with traces of gold. On the east side of Wood River, in the East Mountain 
Range, is the third and probably the largest belt. The mines are found in 
calcareous shale, lime, and quartzite, and the ores yield from $50 to $200 per 
ton. East Fork, Elkhorn, Lake Creek, Boulder, and Galena are the principal 
camps. In all of these districts true fissure veins, rich from the surface down, 
are found. 

At Broadford, two miles from Bellevue, are the Minnie Moore and Queen of 
the Hills, probably the most systematically developed mines on Wood River. 
The former reached a depth of 1,000 feet and the latter 700 feet, and the enor- 
mous ore reserves exposed in their lower workings are the most gratifying evi- 
dence of the permanency and richness of the mineral veins of this region. 
Their ores, as shipped to the smelters, yield $100 to $200 in silver per ton, and 
about 70 per cent. lead. The Minnie Moore during 1887 shipped 6,000 tons of 
ore, worth about $750,000, and the Queen of the Hills, 2,500 tons, worth 
$350,000. The previous year's record was about the same, while that of 1888 
fell considerably lower on account of important changes and enlargements of 
machinery, etc., which should raise the yield from these two mines to not less 
than $2,000,000 in 1889. These mines are now splendidly equipped for a con- 
tinuous heavy output. The Relief, Bob Ingersoll, Hope, and Michigan are all 
good mines in the immediate vicinity. The first owner of the Minnie Moore 
sold out for $50,000 nine months after its discovery. Two years later it was 
sold for $500,000, and its new owners have long since been repaid this sum. 

At Bullion, seven miles west of Hailey, is a magnificent group of mines, 
among which are the Idahoan, Bullion, Mayflower, and Red Elephant. The 
Mayflower is owned by J. V. Farwell, of Chicago, who paid $375,000 for it 
when a mere "prospect hole," and inside of eighteen months the mine reim- 
bursed him for the entire outlay. The Bullion has produced over $1,000,000, 
and the deepest workings on the vein have recently disclosed some very rich 
ore. It has a record of $73,000 in forty days. The Red Elephant, in the 
immediate vicinity, during the summer of 1887, yielded $40,000— the labor 



4$ IDAHO. 

of fifteen men, who were engaged much of the time in development work 
not connected with taking out ore. In December, 1887, a great strike of ore, 
yielding $1,000 per ton, was made in the Red Elephant, and it produced 
$50,000 in the last ninety days of 1888. The Idahoan, near by, is one of the 
steadiest producers of high-grade ore in the West. Commencing with a divi- 
dend of $30,000 to its fortunate owner in 1883, it has poured out some $800,000 
since, and paid as high as $100,000 in dividends in a single year. Its vein in 
the lower workings has [reached the prodigious width of ninety feet. These 
Bullion mines yield very rich ores, giving from $100 to $250 per ton in silver, 
and 50 to 80 per cent- lead. Their low grade ores are concentrated by a cheap 
process, so that from five to eight tons are reduced to one before shipment, 
leaving a product of nearly ail metal — lead and silver. Bullion Camp, when 
actively worked, is considered good for $1,000,000 or more per year. 

Deer Creek, five miles northwest of Hailey, has the Narrow Gauge group, 
also purchased by J. Y. Farwell, at $85,000; the Wolftone, which, in early 
stages of development, yielded $40,000 in one summer; the Montana, Davitt, 
Red Cloud, Emery, War Dance, and Champion, all of which are fair pro- 
ducers, and show fine ore bodies for future dividends. 

The Warm Springs Belt, near Ketchum, embraces many excellent mines, 
among them the Eureka, which was opened in midsummer of 1881, and pro- 
duced ten times its first selling price in sixty days; the West Fork, which, with 
several other claims, was sold* by the discoverers to a Philadelphia company 
for $16,000, and from which one man then extracted 300 tons of ore, worth 
$50,000, in twenty days; the Elkhorn, which has yielded two or three fortunes 
within six years, and has recently disclosed a new and rich ore body, and the 
Victoria and Baltimore, which, during 1877, sent a fine shipment of ore to 
Denver, yielding $200 per ton. The Parker made one of the greatest strikes of 
recent years in January, 1889 — a vein two feet wide yielding from $500 to 
$1,000 per ton. On East Fork of Wood River, about ten miles from Hailey, 
is a fine group of mines, among which the North Star is a veritable bonanza, 
showing a very large vein, which has been traced two miles, yielding $100 in 
silver and lead to the ton. It is now shipping fifteen tons daily. 

The Boulder district, twenty miles north of Ketchum, has made a good 
record for the amount of development. The experiences of some poor pros- 
pectors who own the Ophir is an illustration of how many men of limited 
means gradually develop splendid mines in Idaho. During the summer of 
1887, the Ophir made a shipment of 106^ tons, that figured up $26,282, with an 
average per ton of $166 silver, $39 gold, and $42 lead, or $247 per ton. A lot 
of jigging ore, $4,386, brought up the total to $30,668.29, derived from one 
mine. On this the charge of sampling, smelting, and freight amounted to $4,- 
142.52, leaving a net to the mine of $26,525.77, which left a handsome profit 
after paying for mining, hauling, and packing. It is estimated that ore to the 
value of $50,000 is in sight in the mine, and $35,000 more of second-class on 
the dump. This property has been worked only about two years, and is prov- 
ing a bonanza to the owners, who went in cramped for means to operate with. 

Twenty-five miles north of Ketchum is Galena, the northernmost camp on 
Wood River, in the midst of a section that should soon be a large bullion pro- 
ducer. The Galena district differs from the Warm Spring region, which 



IDAHO. 49 

adjoins it, in that the formation changes to porphyry and syenite. Work is 
being done on the Senate, Alturas, Highland Chief, Red Cloud, Western Home, 
Gladiator, Eunice, and others. The Senate group comprises the most import- 
ant lodes so far opened. The Red Cloud has an ore body ten feet in thick- 
ness and very well defined. The vein carries galena and carbonates, with 90 
to 280 ounces silver to the ton. 

There are several large and important districts flanking those above men- 
tioned on the east and west, all popularly referred to as belonging to the great 
Wood River region. Along Little Wood River, thirty miles east of Hailey, is 
one of these. The Muldoon mine was the great "strike" here. It is from 
twelve to twenty feet wide, and almost a solid mass of galena and carbonates. 
The owners received $110,000 for their find a few months after its discovery. 
On the head of Lost River, twenty miles east of Ketchum, a number of im- 
portant discoveries of silver ores have been made. One tremendous fissure 
vein of from one to ten feet solid galena, containing $50 to $150 silver per ton, 
has been traced several thousand feet. 

On the west side of Wood River, forty miles from Hailey, is Smoky District. 
Smoky is famous as the home of the Carrie Leonard mine, on a vein from one 
to five feet thick, traced for over a mile. The Carrie Leonard produces heavy 
galena ores, in car-load lots, worth from $150 to over $400 per ton. At one 
point the vein widened to four feet, averaging a value of over $400 per ton, and 
it has always paid from the grass-roots down. In 1885 it netted the owners 
$35,000 out of a total yield of $50,000, in four months' time. In the summer 
of 1886, the output was $85,000. In four months the following year it produced 
700 tons, yielding $83,000, bringing the total output of the mine to about 
$240,000, which has paid a profit to the owners, after putting on valuable 
improvements in the shape of machinery, a concentrator, etc. The mine has 
really developed itself and paid its way from the beginning to the present, 
besides dividends, and now is in shape to yield large profits. The King of the 
West, near by, is one of the great mines of Idaho. With drifts, shafts, 
upraises, etc., the mine has openings on the ledge of 1,200 or 1,400 feet in all, 
cutting the vein a distance of over 400 feet long and 600 feet deep, into blocks, and 
showing ore everywhere. The vein is 16 feet wide, and pay-ore, averaging 2 
feet. First-class ore varies from 100 to 275 ounces silver, and 15 to 45 per 
cent. lead. There is ruby and horn silver, gray copper and galena throughout, 
with sulphurets near the surface. The King of the West produced about 
$100,000 in 1888. It is splendidly equipped with all necessary machinery, and 
is thought safe for an output of $500,000 during 1889. The Silver Star, in the 
same district, is also a great property, possessing a very large vein of concen- 
trating ore, from which good shipments were made in 1887. It is also good for 
a large yield in 1889. Among other fine properties here, are. the Tyrannus, 
Dollarhide, and Stormy Galore. Altogether, Smoky promises to be the banner 
silver district of Idaho in the near future. 

Across the divide from Wood River are the Sawtooth Mines, which are 
frequently included in the Wood River section, though of essentially different 
character. They are fissure veins in granite, carrying black sulphurets, ruby, 
and antimonial silver, being free milling, fmt requiring roasting. The district 
is divided into three principal canons or gulches, known as Lake, Beaver, and 



50 IDAHO. 

Smiley gulches. In the first-named is situated the Atlanta mine, showing a 
strong vein from four to six feet in width, yielding fine, rich ore. A quantity 
of ore was extracted from the Lucky Boy, running as high as $5,000 per ton. 
In Beaver Gulch, where the Town of Sawtooth is situated, one of the earliest 
discovered was the Pilgrim mine, which was located, in 1879, by four immi- 
grants from Nebraska, and sold the same season for $30,000. The vein is from 
ten to twenty -five feet wide. The ore is sulphurets and ruby silver. The Bid- 
well and Beaver, extension mines have produced ore assaying from $500 to 
$2,000 per ton. Fifteen tons of ore from the Silver King yielded $500 per 
ton, and its product was nearly $75,000 in 1888. In Smiley Canon are 
located the five claims known as the Nellie Group. A rich stratum of ore 
in the Nellie assayed from $70 to $3,000 per ton The Mountain King vein 
projects above the surface for from two to seven feet. In places the vein 
widens to sixteen feet, five feet of which are ruby sulphuret ore and gold. A 
shipment of 100 tons yielded $240 per ton. The Solace mine is high-grade ore. 
Thirty tons were sold, realizing $10,000. The "Vienna is a vein two to seven 
feet wide, containing streaks worth $2,000 per ton. It has produced about 
$500,000. The Vienna Company is pushing a tunnel which is to be 1,500 feet 
long and tap the vein at great depth. 

About seventy-five miles north of Sawtooth are the new Cape Horn and Sea- 
foam districts which sent out some fabulously rich silver ores during the season 
of 1888, and of which enough is known to justify the belief that 1889 will 
witness great activity in that hitherto terra incognita. This is the most promis- 
ing field for prospectors in the West. 

The great Camas Gold Belt, which stretches from Resurrection District 
(fifteen miles south of Hailey) to the head of Rock and Camp Creeks, and on 
westward along the north side of Camas Prairie to Rocky Bar and Atlanta, is 
believed to be the most extensive belt of free-milling ores in the West. As 
above outlined, it is about 100 miles long and from two to ten miles wide. 
The principal developments are about ten miles west of Hailey, where the 
Camas No. 2, Trump, Junction, Jumbo, and others have been sufficiently 
worked to uncover great fissure veins from ten to fifty feet wide, carrying ore 
worth $15 to $50 per ton. The Camas No. 2 is opened by a 300-foot shaft 
and a 500-foot tunnel. Level 1 is in 360 feet, the tunnel-level 490 feet, 
reaching a point of 130 feet below the apex. The ledge on top is 100 feet 
wide with three streaks of quartz. The one next to the hanging wall is from 
ten to sixteen feet, the middle one sixteen feet, and the one near the foot 
is five feet. These streaks of quartz will average, so assays say, about $32 
gold. Of the 12,000 tons of ore worked by a small and imperfect mill in 1887, 
there were left over 10,000 tons of tailings that assay from $9 to $20 per ton, 
and this was practically repeated in 1888. The bullion produced aggregates 
over $100,000, or an average of about $6.40 per ton of ore stamped. This, 
from rock that assays $32, shows a great waste in milling, owing partly to a 
scarcity of water and partly to the inferior machinery and process. Cheap 
power, plenty of water, and better machinery are requisites which will be 
secured by transporting the ores in the river at Hailey, where a fine water- 
power is being developed. This it is proposed to do. There is no reason 
why, with proper facilities, the Camas Gold Belt should not be rolling out its. 
millions annually. 



IDAHO. 51 



SALMON RIVER. 



Commonly speaking, the Salmon River country embraces Stanley Basin, 
Bonanza, Challis, Bay Horse, and Clayton. These camps are from sixty-five 
to seventy-miles north of Ketchum, ths terminus of the Wood River Branch of 
the Oregon Short Line, and 90 to 150 miles west of Blackfoot, on the Utah 
& Northern Railroad. 

Beginning with the discoveries in Stanley Basin in 1862, placer iqjnes were 
actively worked for ten years, producing, according to reliable estimates, 
$500,000 in that time. Since then a few men have worked there a few months 
yearly, producing about $200,000 more. To show the richness of this ground, 
it may be stated that in early days one man with a ' ' rocker " took out as much 
as $900 in one day. Loon Creek* produced $600,000 in three years. Placers on 
Yankee Fork, near Bonanza, were first successfully worked in 1870, and a few 
men, in brief yearly seasons since, have produced at least $200,000. The work- 
ing of these placers led to the discovery of the wonderful Custer and Charles 
Dickens quartz mines at Bonanza, in 1875. The Custer, where it shows above 
ground, is sixty to 100 feet in width, and is known to be all of 600 feet in 
length. The discoverers in the seasons of '77 and '78 shipped $60,000 worth of 
ore from an open cut 30 x 40 feet, most of which sampled $500 per ton. One lot 
shipped to San Francisco gave over $900 per ton. The best of the ore mills 
from $700 to $1,000 per ton. Although recognized as a silver mine, the Custer 
bullion contains 15 to 20 per cent. gold. The mining engineers who came to 
examine the property soon after its discovery, reported $2,500,000 to $3,000,000 
in sight. A 20-stamp mill was erected in 1881, at a cost of $130,000, and 
paid for itself in a few weeks. The mill has since turned out over $4,000,000, 
mainly from the Custer mine. Recently the Custer and some adjacent claims 
have been purchased by the London owners of the Charles Dickens mine, 
located near by. 

The Dickens is another of the Idaho mines that has paid from the date of 
its discovery. At first the richest gold ore was crushed in small hand mortars, 
and in this way sometimes over $1,000 per day was realized. With ore so 
rich in gold that its discoverers pounded out in hand-mortars during the first 
month about $17,000, and with a system of development more thorough than 
any other mine in this district, it is property which, with proper facilities, will 
rank very high as a producer of bullion. In 1875 the first ore shipments netted 
$15,000; in 1876 twenty-three tons shipped to Salt Lake City assayed $17,000; 
in 1878 an arrastra costing $19,400 was erected. Crushing two tons per day, 
it had produced $32,000 in seventy days, at the close of the working season. 
During the summer of several succeeding years the arrastra was in operation, 
and in addition ore shipments were made to the Custer mill and other reduction 
works. The total production in bullion and ore shipments has been $500,000. 
Two tunnels of a total length of 1,400 feet follow the vein in from the surface, 
giving the mine at present a depth of 400 feet. Careful sampling has revealed 
thousands of tons of ore in place, worth at a low estimate over $400,000 in 
silver and gold. Ore-bins and dumps are full to overflowing. All this dormant 
wealth merely awaits the magic touch of a mill to awaken it to its rightful 
sphere of influence. This is now supplied bv the Custer Consolidation, whose 



52 IDAHO. 

product was $250,000 in 1888, and a heavy output may be looked for in 1889, 
and thereafter. In this, as in all other districts herein noted, are hundreds of 
other mines deserving mention, but with a mere allusion to the Montana, we 
must pass to the Bay Horse District. The Montana mine has yielded over 
$400,000 from an ore-chute 160 feet broad and 2 to 7 feet wide. This has been 
followed down 750 feet, but is far from being exhausted, while there are other 
chutes in the vicinity. 

The Bay Horse District, near Challis, is famous for the Ram's Horn and 
Beardsl^ mines. The Ram's Horn is often pronounced the longest continuous 
quartz vein ever discovered, some experts going so far as to assert that there 
are twenty-nine claims of 1,500 feet each upon it, and that it can be traced for 
eight miles by croppings on the surface. It is in a slate formation, the vein 
between walls averaging six feet, and the ore- body varying from two to seven 
feet in width. The ore is technically a copper-silver ore, but at places carries 
considerable lead, and just enough iron for a good flux for smelting. Gray 
copper, native silver, ruby silver, and chloride are plentiful in the first-class ores 
of the Ram's Horn mines. The mine is developed by several miles of tunnels 
and other openings. Some 25,000 tons of ore, yielding about $1,700,000, 
have been taken from the Ram's Horn. The Beardsley is a splendid property 
adjoining, with a record of several hundred thousand dollars, and magnificent 
ore bodies in sight. The Sky Lark and Silver Wing are also fine properties, 
yielding their thousands annually. There were 2,500,000 pounds of ore and 
bullion shipped from Bay Horse in 1888, worth nearly $500,000. 

ROCKY BAR AND ATLANTA. 

Sixty-five miles northeast of Mountain Home and eighty miles west of Hailey is 
Rocky Bar District, famous as the home of many quartz mines, and miles upon 
miles of rich placer diggings, which alone have yielded $100,000 a year for 
twenty years. The formation of the country is granite, and the ores are mainly 
gold-bearing. The mountains are ribbed with hundreds of veins, which are 
the source of the golden wealth of the many gulches. The ore is generally 
easily worked in arrastras and stamp mills by the simple wet-crushing process; 
and on this account Rocky Bar can point to its product as a result almost entirely 
of home enterprise and capital. In other words, it is a self-sustaining camp 
The principal ledges are the Ada Elmore, Idaho, Confederate Star, Wide West, 
Vishnu, Bonanza, Alturas, and Mountain Goat. The fame of the camp, of 
course, went out upon the strength of performances by such old high-grade 
mines as the Elmore group, with its yield of $1,500,000; the Vishnu, with an 
output of $1,000,000; the Confederate Star and Wide West, with $600,000 each; 
and many others, these yields being from veins two to ten feet thick, of free 
milling rock, running $50 to $500 per ton. It was a poor mine up to a year or 
two ago that could not show a two-foot ledge of $30 to $40 free-milling quartz. 
Even the best ones were all but abandoned when the 100-foot level was reached, 
and hoisting by man-power was no longer a success. As to the hundreds upon 
hundreds of claims of liberal size, whose free-milling quartz would only yield 
$10 to $20 per ton, but little was said and less hoped for. Rocky Bar's envi- 
rons are simply mountains of these classes of ores (which in Colorado would b§ 



IBAHO. 63 

Called high-grade), while cleaving them here and there are great "mother 
lodes, " whose size, regularity, and great average richness stamp them as true 
bonanzas. Among these really great mines — and the only one being developed 
on a comparatively large scale by modern methods — is the Alturas. It is 
opened to a depth of nearly 400 feet, showing a vein on the various levels of 
five to eight feet in thickness, which yields $20 to $50 per ton. The present 
company, with the aid of a modern 50-stamp mill and systematic mining, 
mine and mill their ore at a cost of about $6 per ton, and the product from 
July 1, 1887, to January 1, 1888, averaged about $40,000 per month, and in 
some months of 1888 exceeded these figures. The prospects are good for a 
long continuance of this output, and doubtless other properties at Rock Bar, by 
a similar application of capital and skill, would do as well. Foreman Patter- 
son, whose twenty-two years of experience from the grass-roots to the 2, 000-foot 
levels of such great Colorado gold mines as the Bob Tail and Gregory, at Black 
Hawk, says the Alturas has by far the best showing he ever saw. He says also 
that Rocky Bar, as a whole, has more and better mines at the same stage of 
development than Gilpin County, Colorado, a county that has rolled out its 
$2,000,000 to $3,000,000 of bullion every year for twenty-five years. 

The Wide West is situated one and one-half miles south of Rocky Bar, and 
is surrounded by ledges that have 'paid liberally for years. The Wide West has 
been worked to a depth of 300 feet, and has been thoroughly opened by several 
shafts and tunnels. The vein has averaged two feet in width and has paid $35 
per ton by the poorest appliances for reduction. The gross yield of this mine 
has been $600,000, or more, of which $100,000 was produced in 1888. Eminent 
experts claim that there is at least $1,000,000 in sight in this mine. It has been 
developed to a depth of 275 feet, with numerous openings along the vein, all 
tending to prove it one of the greatest mines of this or any other region. A 
strong English syndicate has recently purchased the Wide West, and will 
develop it to the fullest extent as rapidly as possible. 

We should add that the Vishnu and four neighboring mines have produced 
over $2,000,000 within 300 feet of the grass-roots, and this by the aid of only 
light prospecting machinery, and no pumps They have thousands of tons of 
$30 to $50 free-milling rock in sight, and will give an account of themselves 
whenever capital adequate to their worth is expended upon them. About the 
same facts apply to numerous others. They have yielded from $100,000 to $350,- 
000 each with only the rudest appliances, work generally stopping when the 
ground was wet or when man-power was no longer practicable for raising ore. 
Great things may be expected of Rocky Bar when such properties are worked 
as they should be — a period now happily not long removed, as capital is rapidly 
being turned in that direction. About 250 miners are employed at Rocky Bar. 

Some twenty miles* east of Rocky Bar is the new Pine Grove District, where 
some large veins of rich gold ores are being rapidly opened up. Among these 
is the Victory mine, which has been opened at some sixteen different places 
along its length of 1,500 feet, disclosing a vein about three feet thick of free 
gold ore, which yields from $50 to $250 per ton. This and other neighboring 
veins are superbly located for economical working. Two quartz mills were 
erected during 1888, and they made a good showing of gold bars. 



04 IDAHO. 



ATLANTA; 



The quartz and placer mines of the Middle Boise region, embraced in 
Atlanta, Yuba, Queen River, and other districts grouped about the headwaters 
of Middle Boise River, have been constantly productive since 1864-65, during 
this period contributing several million dollars to Idaho's output of gold and 
silver. Atlanta, the natural center of this region, is about seventy-five miles 
north of Mountain Home, and ten miles from Rocky Bar. The formation of the 
district is granitic, with dykes of syenite and various varieties of porphyritic 
rock. The quartz veins run nearly east and west, and carry gold and silver in 
nearly equal proportions, the silver slightly preponderating in most of them. 
Atlanta Hill is full of mineral from base to summit, but the main depository 
is the great Atlanta ledge, which has been traced by croppings on the surface 
for two miles, and is from 40 to 100 feet wide. Of this ledge, that noted 
authority on mining matters, Prof. W. A. Hooker, says : " In the great width 
of the fissure, between the encasing rocks, the unusual richness and character 
of its ores, as well as certain other features, it suggests the celebrated Veta 
Madre, of Guanaxuato, the Veta Grand of Zaxatecas, and the famous Corn- 
stock, of Nevada," the three greatest silver mines of the world, and Prof. J. E. 
Clayton adds : " It is entitled by its great strength and richness of its ores, to 
take high rank with the few great mines of the West; it contains the purest 
ores of silver that I have ever seen in an extensive mine." There are over a 
mile of openings in the shape of tunnels, crosscuts, shafts, etc., to prove the 
assertions of these celebrated mining engineers. The greatest depth is 400 feet. 
There are several veins of paying ore, from a few inches to ten feet wide 
distributed throughout the ledge, carrying ruby silver, black sulphurets, silver 
glance, native silver, and native gold. At the point of discovery, a veritable 
treasure-box of ruby silver was found, which, in the small space of 20 x 50 
feet, yielded $200,000. In 1876, 1877, and 1878, 1,000 tons of ore were 
shipped to Omaha, which returned $700,000, probably the largest average 
yield per ton ever produced from such a large shipment by one mine in this 
country. Probably the best day's work ever done by one man in a quartz 
mine was that accomplished a few years ago in the Monarch, when one miner 
in ten hours broke down $50,000 worth of ore. From a block of the Monarch 
vein, 300 feet deep and 400 feet long, $1,100,000 worth of ore has been 
extracted, and there are at least 10,000 tons of $50 ore in sight. 

Just west of and adjoining the Monarch is the Buffalo mine, consisting of 
500 feet along the Atlanta ledge. The claim is weL developed by six levels 
from 200 to 500 feet in length and a thorough system of crosscuts across the 
vein. The main pay- vein in the Buffalo averages two and one-half feet in 
width, and there are two others from eight to twelve inches wide. The Buffalo 
has proved one of the most steady producers on the Pacific Coast. No satisfac- 
tory data concerning its yield up to 1874 is obtainable, although many thou- 
sands of dollars are known to have been shipped by its owners prior to that 
period. Since 1874 the yield has been uniformly $100,000 per year, one-third 
of this being gold, and the balance silver. The Buffalo ores now being milled 
yield from $50 to $100 per ton, and 40,000 tons, worth $20 to $30 per ton, are 
blocked out in the mine. But the Buffalo mine has richer streaks tiian would 



IfcAliO. 55 

be indicated by the above. Many tons of its ores have yielded $700 to $1,000 
per ton. Other promising claims on and adjacent to the Atlanta ledge are the 
Last Chance (generally considered a feeder of the Monarch), which yields some 
fabulously rich gold ore ; the Ohio, an 8 -foot vein, yielding from $40 to 
$100 per ton, and the Magnet, Stanley, Jessie Benton, Hard Times, Silver 
Wave, Tehoma, and many others. 

The Tehoma is one of the very best of these. The vein averages about ten 
feet in width, and much of this is ore that yields $55 per ton on an average. 
The product is about one-fourth gold and three-fourths silver. The mine is 
thoroughly developed by four tunnels, aggregating some 2,000 feet along the 
vein, and 500 feet of crosscuts and winzes, all in ore. There are some 20,000 
tons of ore blocked out by these developments that contain from $50 to $100 
per ton. There are few better openings for profitable investments in mines 
than at Atlanta. 

THE OWYHEE COUNTRY. 

The most productive quartz mines yet discovered in Idaho are those in the 
vicinity of Silver City, fifty miles south of Caldwell and Nampa, on the Oregon 
Short Line. They were found in July, 1863, and have been popularly known 
as the Owyhee mines, including those on Florida and War Eagle Mountains, 
on opposite sides of Silver City; those of Wagontown, seven miles northeast of 
Silver; those of Flint, nine miles to the southeast, and those of South Mount- 
ain, thirty miles south of Silver City. The mineral characteristics of these 
are: Gold and silver in Florida and War Eagle Mountains, argentiferous 
galena in South Mountain, tin and refractory-milling ores in Flint, silver and 
milling ores in Wagontown. "Geologically considered," says a mining engineer, 
"War Eagle mountain is granite; Florida Mountains, porphyritic ; Flint and 
Wagontown, granite and porphyritic, while at South Mountain the features are 
limestone, prophyry and granite, with some metamorphosed slates." 

As a rule, the veins of both War Eagle and Florida Mountains are small, but 
exceedingly rich, containing fine gold, native silver, simple sulphurets, and 
chlorides of silver. The course of the veins, which by depths varying from 
300 to 1,300 feet, have been proved to be true fissures, is mainly north and 
south. The gold belt — the Oro Fino, Elmore, Golden, and South Chariot, 
Minnesota, and Mahogany — runs due north, while the silver belt — the Belle 
Peck, Poor Man, Empire, Blinois Central, etc. — has a course northwest and 
southeast. 

The Oro Fino group, as now formed, and which has recently changed hands 
at $750,000, consists of the Oro Fino, Sucker, Dunganon, Badger, Summit, 
New York, and the Bannock. The Oro Fino is located near the center of the 
group. The ledge is a well-defined, true fissure, strong from end to end, being 
from four to sixteen feet wide, and the ores are free milling, easily mined and 
reduced, and containing both gold and silver, the former largely predomi- 
nating. The greatest depth is about 300 feet, at which point the vein is sixteen 
feet wide, all paying ore. The Oro Fino produced $2,756,128 in six years, 
without the aid of steam-hoisting works or any other considerable outlay of 
capital; of this, the princely sum of $1,500,000 was taken out in two years. 
During 1885, 160 tons milled $83,000. With all this yield, experts estimate 



56 IDAHO. 

that there yet remains over 60,000 tons of low grade ore, worth $25 per ton, 
above the 300-foot level, while all below is virgin ground. 

The Sinker mine is the extension of the Oro Fino, and, if the performances 
in the Oro Fino are any criterion, there are millions in it. A splendid tunnel 
scheme is being pushed to enter the Sinker ground, where the mountain chops 
off abruptly, and continuing in on the vein all the way through to beneath 
the Oro Fino shaft, giving a depth of 400 feet and a length of 1,310 feet on the 
vein. 

About 125 feet west of and parallel with the Oro Fino, is the celebrated old 
Idah Elmore, whose name has long been changed to New York. A mine that 
could produce $500,000 in thirty days, with a milling capacity of only 20-stamp, 
as this superb property did, could well bank on its old name. This is believed 
to be the largest thirty-day output by any one mine and 20-stamp mill 
recorded in the history of mining. Working a few months at a time, and often 
idle, it has produced about $2,500,000. 

The Bannock, known originally as the Golden Chariot, is the south extension 
of the New York. It is a vein from six to twelve feet wide, and is credited 
with a $3,000,000 output from high grade quartz above the 1,000-foot level, 
and was considered valuable enough to justify battles between companies of 
armed men, of which a number lost their lives before the question of owner- 
ship was finally settled. There are fortunes in the Bannock yet. 

The Poor Man group consists of the Poor Man, Belle Peck, Oso, Ellsworth, 
Glenbrook, Oro Grand, and Gold Run. The Poor Man has often been called 
the richest mine in America. It would be interesting to know why such a 
regal property, whose bullion was at times carried out by the wagon-load, 
should have been called the Poor Man. It must have been because it promised 
to make millionaires of the penniless, and for the same good reason its name 
was not changed, for it magnificently fulfilled the promise. From a block of 
its territory, only 400 feet long by 400 feet deep, it produced somewhere from 
$4,000,000 to $6,000,000. The former figure is the lowest estimate of the most 
conservative authorities, but there are those old-timers whose patriotic pride 
can receive no deeper stab than an insinuation that the Poor Man has not been 
a six time millionaire. A fifteen-ton lot of ore shipped to Newark, N. J., 
returned $75,000; another 100-ton lot returned $90,000 net. It is esti- 
mated that there are some 100,000 tons of good ore in sight in the stopes 
between the surface and the 400-foot level, which is worth from $300,000 to 
$400,000. What is below the 400-foot level of this splendid true fissure can 
best be approximated from the fact that the vein there maintains its strength of 
from three to five feet in width, and that the Belle Peck lower workings — on 
the same vein, a few hundred feet north — are 600 feet deeper, and in good ore. 
There is a basis here to figure up a future output equal to the past. 

The Belle Peck is the north extension of the Foor Man. It is developed by 
a tunnel 1,423 feet long; an I several shafts from 100 to 200 feet deep each, in 
connection therewith. Its vein is from four to seven feet wide, of easily 
extracted milling ores, giving $50 to $200 per ton, mainly in gold. It has 
yielded about $300,000; its last six months' output being about $150,000. 
Lying as it does some 600 feet below the Poor Man, its tunnel is the key to the 
unlocking of t\ ,X mine's treasures to the depth of 1,000 feet. One solid ore 



IDAHO. 57 

chute now exposed in the Belle Peck is 500 feet long and from three to seven 
feet wide. It is a great property alone, but taken in connection with the Poor 
Man, it is almost invaluable. 

Among the other Silver City mines is the Morning Star, which has produced 
among other large lots of ore one of 100 tons giving a yield of $100,000, and 
which has produced altogether $1,000,000; the Owyhee, from which four men 
extracted $160,000 in eighteen months in 1888-89 ; the "War Eagle, from which 
$700 to $1,000 per day has been taken for many months at a time; the Mahog- 
any, which has added $1,200,000 to our circulating medium in four years, and 
has thousands of tons of good ore yet in sight; the Black Jack, with a record of 
$750,000 in a very brief period from but a fraction of its territory; the Wilson, 
with over $1,000,000 now in sight, etc., etc., altogether constituting a grand 
array of veins from two to six feet wide, yielding ores worth $50 to $5,000 per 
ton. 

These Owyhee mines produced about $150,000 in 1888, the best of them 
being tied up by changes in ownership, new developments, etc., and they are 
in superb shape for a very large yield henceforth. 

After about ten years, fitful operations under the most extravagant manage- 
ment, conducted with the sole view of promoting mining stock deals, all the 
companies operating on this grand mineral belt suddenly collapsed, owing 
largely to the Bank of California disaster in 1875. The mines were then virtu- 
ally abandoned by the owners, and were sold to satisfy claims of local creditors. 
Much of the succeeding period has been exhausted in clearing up titles and 
effecting consolidations, and then, until the Oro Fino sale to the English syndi- 
cate, nearly everything has been held by persons of small means, who could 
operate only on a small scale. Some of the finest property has fallen into such 
ruin that large capital is necessary to even put it into working order. It is 
generally understood that the English syndicate will take hold at once with 
the same vigor that characterized the Alturas Company at Rock Bar, thoroughly 
opening up the Oro Fino and Poor Man groups, and erecting one or two mod- 
ern 50-stamp mills. Thus the Owyhee country will once more take its right- 
ful position among the prominent precious metal producers of the world. 

THE BOISE BASIN COUNTRY. 

Boise Basin, commencing about forty miles north of Boise City, is about 
thirty miles long, with an average width of fifteen miles. It is surrounded 
by rolling hills, heavily timbered. The country rock is granite. The placers 
yielded for eighteen years an average of more than a million dollars per 
annum. Their total yield to date is over $30,000,000, and some of them are 
still worked with pro£j;. As the placer grounds, however, grew gradually 
less paying, attention was given to quartz, and as the district lies wholly 
within the eastern and western limits of the richest mineral belt of the Terri- 
tory, there seems no reason why her quartz mines should not produce as great 
a yield as any mineral section in the West. 

The principal quartz districts are Quartzburg and Banner, the former fifty 
and the latter seventy miles northeast of Boise City. The Quartzburg District 
has been a large and steady gold producer ever since 1867, the bulk of its pro- 



& IDAS6. 

duct coming from the Gold Hill mine. This consists of 3,900 feet along the 
great Gold Hill lode. The vein carries two to ten feet of easily worked, decom- 
posed, sulphureted quartz, yielding from $10 to $100 per ton. Thousands 
of tons have been worked in a 25-stamp mill, giving an average yield of over 
$30 per ton, while large runs have been made yielding from $50 to $100 per 
ton. The main shaft is down about 500 *feet; from this six levels have been 
extended along the vein at intervals of about seventy-five feet. The various 
underground openings aggregate a length of about three miles, and have 
almost universally followed paying quartz. The material now being raised 
from the deep workings pays almost double what that did from the surface. 
The Gold Hill product is as steady as the returns of interest on Government 
bonds. Indeed, its success has been almost phenomenal. The old mill ran 
eighteen years with only a brief stoppage for repairs, until its destruction by 
fire in 1886. It produced over $3,000,000, reducing the Gold Hill quartz at an 
expense of less than $1.25 per ton. When, occasionally, its proprietors 
desired to do custom work (crush quartz for other mines), it earned $56 per 
day for each battery of five stamps; and yet it was that same old Cobden mill, 
which in 1865, in the hands of New York capitalists, made a flat failure and 
did much to bring Idaho into bad repute as a mining country. Its owners, 
who were thorough miners and mill men, bought it in 1869, and it paid for 
itself and for the mine and all other improvements fifteen times over. A new 
25-stamp mill was erected in 1887, and is now pounding out its thou- 
sands per month. The Gold Hill enterprise is a splendid monument to the 
skill and nerve of the practical miners in charge, and an illustration of what 
the right men can do with the right machinery in Idaho. 

At Banner is another striking illustration of what capital, skill, and energy, 
properly united, will accomplish in Idaho mines. The Elmira Company there 
owns a group of mines, called the Banner, Crown Point, Wolverine, Idaho, 
Star of the West, and the Washoe. Their work has been mainly done since 
1878. In the Banner the pay chute is over 500 feet in length. There 
are two veins. The tunnel struck a vein fifteen inches wide at a distance of 
871 feet; after being driven eight feet further, it struck a second vein, which 
varies from six to fifteen inches in width. The ore is chloride; occasionally 
black sulphurets, antimonial, ruby, and native silver. The Crown Point is 
open to a depth of over 400 feet. These mines are usually only worked for 
six months of each year, the 20-stamp mill shutting down during the long 
winters on account of the greater expense of operating at that season. For the 
past ten years, working in this way only half of each year, the product has 
been from $100,000 to $200,000 annually. The yield from July 1 to December 
1, 1887, was $145,000, and this rate was maintained in 1888. 

Among the many other important developments in this region are those by a 
London Company at Silver Mountain, northeast of Banner. They are driving 
a long tunnel on the Julia mine, have erected a modern 20-stamp mill, and in 
all expending some $200,000. The Julia is described as a very iarge vein of 
silver ore, worth $90 per ton. 

These various mines at Quartzburg, Banner, and Silver Mountain, in some 
mining countries would hardly be considered prospected, and for miles around 
this vicinity are hundreds of quartz claims that are known to be rich in free 



ibAiio. 6y 

gold or silver. A heavy flow of water is encountered in many of them at a 
depth of from 100 to 200 feet. This compels the investment of considerable 
capital in pumping, and hoisting machinery, or else leads to the abandonment 
of the mine. As the region is developed almost exclusively by comparatively 
poor men, a large number of very promising mines, which yielded a handsome 
revenue until water filled them up, are lying idle. The investment of from 
$20,000 to $50,000 in improved pumping machinery, and other necessary 
auxiliaries to successful deep mining, would render dozens of claims very 
profitable. It follows that in the very near future capital will seek such 
legitimate schemes, and the mines of Idaho City, Quartzburg, Banner, and 
other districts will yield their tens of thousands where they now yield their 
thousands. 

CCEUR D'ALENE. 

That portion of Shoshone County, North Idaho, lying between the Bitter 
Root Range and the spur of the same range known as the Cceur d'Alene, but 
five years past was an unknown wilderness.^ To-day the Cceur d'Alene district 
has become famous throughout the continent, and known, perhaps, wherever 
the English language is spoken, for the richness and extent of its mineral 
resources. Attention was first called to the region by the discovery of rich 
placers, but within the past two years great developments in quartz have taken 
place, and these now entirely overshadow the placer mining industry. 

The Bunker Hill and Sullivan are the most noted mines at present, showing 
immense bodies of low grade silver-lead ores, which are concentrated and 
shipped at a great profit. The output for 1887 was $823,500 while for 1888 it 
was considerably less on account of a disagreement with several railroads in 
regard to freight rates. Prof. J. E. Clayton has this to say of the Cceur d'Alene 
mines : "The Bunker Hill and Sullivan are extracting about 125 tons of crude 
ore per day, which yields in the concentrating mill about thirty tons of clean 
shipping ore, that assays about thirty-two ounces per ton in silver and 65 per 
cent, in lead — say a gross value of silver and lead of $60 per ton. With fair 
rates of transportation and reduction, the net profit on the dressed ore ought to 
be about $30 per ton— say $25 per ton net. This would make the Bunker Hill 
and Sullivan output worth $750 per day net. This output, judging from what 
I know of the mine, is about one-half of its capacity. If the Stemwinder mine 
continues as large as it now shows in the crosscut tunnel and in the surface 
workings, it will be able to furnish about thirty tons of clean ore per day. 
The Last Chance and the Emma can probably produce, when opened and 
equipped, about twenty tons of dressed ore per day, and the Tyler mine may be 
rated at about the same quantity, making a total output of 130 tons of clean 
shipping ore per day. Assuming that it will take, on an average, five tons of 
crude ore to make one ton of concentrates, we have an output of 650 tons of 



60 IDAHO. 

crude ore per day, from the whole length of the lode now known to be pro- 
ductive, divided as follows : 





Crude Ore, 
tons. 


Dressed 
Ore, tons. 


Sullivan and Bunker Hill 

Stemwinder 


300 
150 
100 
100 


60 
30 


Emma and Last Chance 


20 


Tyler 


20 






Total 


650 


130 







" In order to realize the output that I have estimated, the Bunker Hill and 
Sullivan must double the capacity of their concentration mill; the Stemwinder 
and the Tyler mill must have its capacity doubled, and the Emma and Last 
Chance must build a mill of 100 tons' capacity. The only other mine in the 
neighborhood of Wardner that is sufficiently explored to insure a regular out- 
put of ore is the Sierra Nevada. This mine will open by four tunnels, and 
connecting raises and crosscuts, with a full equipment "of a tramway and con- 
centration mill. An output of fifteen tons of dressed ore per day can be made 
easily. This ore will give an average assay of 40 ounce silver and 60 per 
cent, lead — say a gross value of $65 to $75 per ton. This, added to the Bunker 
Hill series of mines (with some other small additions), will bring the output up to 
about 150 tons per day, or, say 45,000 tons per year, from the neighborhood of 
Warder alone. This represents only one group of mining claims, covering an 
area of about two miles long by less than one mile wide. I can state, as a matter 
of personal judgment, that the group of mines near Warder, above described, 
does not represent more than one-fourth of the productive capacity of the 
Cceur d'Alene silver-lead mines. 

"The mines now being opened on Cafion Creek, twenty miles northeast of 
Wardner, near Burke, and along down the canon three miles to Davenport, 
are far more numerous than in the Wardner district, and when they are properly 
opened and equipped can furnish an output of 200 tons of shipping ore per 
day. The Tiger and Poor Man mines alone can furnish over one-half that 
amount now. The mine on Nine-Mile Creek, and on the divide between it and 
Canon Creek, give promise of being ' large producers. Also the large lodes 
farther north in and near Sunset Peak Mountain, near the heads of Nine-Mile 
and Canon Creeks, will undoubtedly be large ore producers. These three 
groups of mines all have substantially the same outlet at Wallace Station on 
the railroad, main line. As soon as the mining companies can erect three or 
four good concentration-mills to dress the second-class ores in these three 
groups of mines, they can give an output of more than 250 tons of shipping 
ore per day, for, say nine months in the year, making an annual output of 
60,000 tons of ore, having a gross value in market of $3,500,000. 

" There is also an extensive group of mines near the Town of Mullen, about 
six miles east of Canon Creek, that can be made large producers. The Hunter, 
Yolande, Morning, Evening, and half a dozen others are strong veins of good 
promise, and can be made to give an output of at least sixty tons of shipping 
ore per day. Outside of the five groups of mines above mentioned, as the prin- 
cipal source of output, there are many promising locations interspersed between 



IDAHO. 61 

the large groups that will make important additions to the estimates above 

made. Following is a summary of the available ore supply: 

Tons. 

The Wardner Group per day 150 

Canon, Nine-Mile, and Sunset Groups " 250 

Mullen " 60 

Miscellaneous Claims " 40 

Average daily capacity 500 

" Counting nine months only for steady output, it gives us 135,000 tons of 
shipping ore, worth in the market (at present prices for silver and lead) $60 per 
ton, or a total gross value of $8,100,000. 

Among the gold mines are the Mother Lode, situated on Pritchard Creek, 
which has a 400-foot tunnel and produces free gold ore worth $80 per ton. On 
the same vein is the Idaho, which has a tunnel 2,000 feet long, and produces 
free gold ore worth $24 per ton. The Treasure Box Company, on the Mother 
Lode, have taken out in six weeks, with an arrastra, $60,000 in gold. Mother's 
Boy, Golden Chest, Buckeye Boy, Occident, and Golden King, on the same 
vein, are each producing largely of gold. The principal placer-mining gulches 
are the Pritchard, Trail, Eagle, Buckskin, Missolula, Pony, and Bay. Besides 
these, there are hill diggings, which are being worked with great success by 
hydraulics; and a flume costing $500,000 has been constructed to work these 
valuable placer mines. 

OTHER DISTRICTS. 

The Viola Silver Mines, at Nicholia", Eastern Idaho, are still producing largely. 
The profits of six months' running of mine and smelter in 1887 were $160,000, 
and the product of about 4,000 tons of silver-lead bullion in 1888 must have 
reached a value of at least $500,000. It is, therefore, one of the most profitable 
establishments in the West. The Caribou Gold Mines, also in Eastern Idaho, 
are soon to have their great ore bodies worked by a large mill being erected by 
St. Louis parties. There are numerous silver and copper mines in the Seven 
Devils region, Western Idaho, soon to be developed by wealthy Montana oper- 
ators. The Horn Silver region, forty miles east of Hailey, produced largely 
during 1887. Kinikinick District, on Salmon River, has been a steady producer 
of high grade silver ore for years. Quartz and placer mining are carried on 
successfully in Warren's district, in Idaho County. At Gibbonville, North 
Idaho, along the North Fork of Salmon River, forty miles northwest of Salmon 
City, and ninety miles west of Butte, Mont., is an important cluster of gold 
mines which have been yielding well for several years. They are true fissure 
veins, from two to ten feet wide, carrying easily-reduced sulphide ores, which 
yield from $20 to $200 per ton. Within a radius of fifteen miles of Salmon 
City are "many gold veins, which, in Colorado or other less distant regions, 
would receive great attention from the mining world at least. The " Kentuck," 
for instance, having for years produced about $100,000 gold per year with a 
10-stamp mill. 

Ever since the earliest Idaho and Montana "stampede," gold has been 
known to exist in different bars along Snake River, Idaho, and in recent years 
it has been demonstrated that there are fair diggings at intervals for 1,000 
miles along that great stream. The metal, however, was generally found in 



62 IDAHO. 

the form of "flour gold," and, during all these years, has been passed by as 
almost worthless, because it could not be saved by the ordinary process of 
sluicing. Only two or three years ago, several ingenious Salt Lake miners 
began experimenting with green copper plates electroplated with silver, by 
which the precious metal, however fine, may be saved at slight expense. This 
and other processes are being successfully utilized, and the vast gold field is 
being worked at short intervals for 800 miles. 

The following figures furnished by the United States Assay Office at Boise 
City, late in 1887, is a good illustration of the wonderful growth of the mining 
interests in Idaho for the preceding five years: 

■" For a number of years the mining interests of Idaho did not advance as 
rapidly as those of the neighboring Territories, owing to difficulty of access 
and the great cost of labor and supplies. But with the completion of the Utah 
& Northern and Oregon Short Line Railways, all the principal mining camps 
were placed in easy connection with the outer world, and costs so reduced as 
to give new life to mining; and the production of precious metals rose from a 
little less than $4,000,000 in 1884 to $6,600,000 in 1885, $7,650,009 in 1886, and 
in 1887 to $9,245,000. This yield is divided as follows: 

Gold .. $2,417,000.00 

Silver 4,639,000.00 

Lead , 2,195,000.00 

Total $9,245,000.00 

" The yield by counties is: 

"Alturas County.— Production, $3,400,000. The greater portion of this 
comes from the "Wood River districts and Rocky Bar. All the camps of the Wood 
River are reached by the branch of the Oregon Short Line which leaves the main 
line at Shoshone. Rocky Bar is reached by stage from Mountain Home, on 
the Oregon Short Line, the distance being about fifty miles. The Sawtooth 
Range, in Alturas County, contains many new and most promising districts, 
such as Sheep Mountain, Vienna, and Era, which can be readily reached from 
Ketchum, on the Wood River branch of the Oregon Short Line. 

"Boise County. — Production, $650,000. The mining districts of this 
county are Idaho City, Placerville, Quartzburg, Banner, Deadwood, and Silver 
Mountain, all of which can be reached by the Idaho Central Railway, 
leaving the Oregon Short Line at Nampa for Boise City, and thence by stage. 

" Idaho County. — Production, $600 000. Warren, Florence, and the new 
and promising district of Alton, are reached from Weiser, on the Oregon Short 
Line, by stage to Salmon Meadows, and thence on horseback. The Seven 
Devils' copper mines, though in Washington County, are also reached by this 
stage line. Elk City and the Salmon River mining districts are reached by 
steamer from Wallula via the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company to Lewis 
ton, and thence by stage. 

" Lemhi County. — Production, $1,580,000. Salmon City, Leesburg, Ni- 
cholia, and the other mining districts of Lemhi are reached by stage from Red 
Rock, on the Utah & Northern. 

" Owyhee County. — Production, $300,000. Silver City, Wagontown, and 
Flint are reached by stage from Nampa, on the Oregon Short Line, 



IDAHO. 63 

"Shoshone County. — Production, $1,150,000. Murray, the center of the 
gold fields, is best reached by stage from Thompson's Falls, on the Northern 
Pacific Railway, and "Wardner, Burke, and other silver and lead districts, by 
rail from Rathdrum, on the Northern Pacific Railway, the Utah & Northern 
connecting with the Northern Pacific Railway at Garrison. 

"The balance of the product of the Territory is from small placer claims 
scattered through the other counties. Almost all of this large and increasing 
product is from mines that have paid their own way from the start, but little out- 
side capital having been invested in Idaho mines. Probably in no part of the West 
can there be found so many good mines, which only need capital for develop- 
ment, purchase of machinery, etc., to make them large producers, and nowhere 
will better opportunities for investment be found than in the districts above 
mentioned." 

No one who is at all acquainted with the mineral belts of Idaho doubts that 
other mines, now only crudely worked, and many not yet found, will equal in 
richness and extent any of those described in this work. There is a wonderful 
future in store for the Territory as a bullion producer. There is an immediate 
brilliant future for hundreds of mining men, who can take a reasonable 
amount of capital there to develop poorly -worked claims, and for hundreds of 
experienced prospectors whose only capital consists of pick, shovel, and a sum- 
mer's "grub stake." In fact, the names of Idaho's mineral veins is legion, and 
unnumbered thousands are yet to be discovered. The entire region from 
Snake River to the British Possessions, a distance of nearly 400 miles, is 
full of metal-ribbed mountains. The record of the past is good, but the prom- 
ise of the future is glorious. The past has been the roughest pioneering; the 
future will be of golden fruition. Sufficient development has been made to 
demonstrate the fact that Idaho is the richest and most extensive belt ever 
found, with tens of thousands of square miles of the rugged Salmon River, 
Cceur d'Alene, Wahsatch and Bitter Root Mountain ranges, which white man's 
foot has never trod, yet to be heard from. Nature has done as. much for this 
country as for any on earth. It contains every element desired to build up 
several of the richest mining communities in the world, and has only lacked the 
recent gratifying advance of the iron horse. Its climate is mild and conducive 
to economical mining operations the year round. Its smelting facilities of 
fuel, lime, water, and all varieties and grades of ore are unexcelled. 

As the unbiased opinions of competent mining experts from other States are 
valuable in this connection, we append a recent interview of a Boise Statesman 
reporter with a well-known mining man of Boston. The Statesman of January 
1, 1889 says: 

"A representative of the Statesman had the pleasure of a brief conversation 
with Capt. "W. I. Smart, of Boston, one of the finest mining engineers of the 
United States. He is here representing a Boston syndicate, to inspect the mines 
of this part of Idaho and make investments for the Company of which he is a 
member. Captain Smart has traveled extensively, follows mining engineering 
• as a profession, has been engaged in it for over twenty years, is an enthusiast 
in his work, and a very intelligent, agreeable gentleman. He has great faith 
in legitimate mining, and believes that a fair and square representation of any 
raining section is the best, 



64 IDAHO. 

" 'What is your impression of our portion of the country with reference to 
mining?' asked the reporter. 

" 'I am very favorably impressed/ said Mr. Smart. ' In fact, I am surprised. 
It is far beyond what I had expected to see. Your rich placer deposits are the 
strongest evidence of the existence near by of large veins of ore well filled 
with precious metals.' 

" 'Have you made any investments in Idaho?' 

" 'Yes, sir; I have bought for our Company a group of mines near Center- 
ville, the Elkhorn, the Gladstone, the Oro Fino, and the Revenue, which we 
propose to work with one plant.' 

" 'What is the feeling of Eastern capitalists generally in reference to Idaho's 
mines?' 

" 'It is generally favorable, and is coming more and more into prominence. 
They are growing cautious, and will invest only after careful consideration, but 
I tell them that mining investments, taken as a whole, pay 25 per cent, more 
than either railroads, banking, or merchandising. From the rich specimens 
sent East from your mines, Eastern capitalists, especially at St. Louis, are 
becoming much interested in the mines of Idaho. The reason why Idaho is 
as backward as she is, is not that you have not the ore, for this you have in 
abundance, but that you lack the proper machinery for the reduction of your 
ores. With two or three exceptions you have no machinery to properly test 
the value of your ores. The money your people saved in placer mining they 
have spent in prospecting and in securing quartz property, and have no means 
to develop it. What you need is more capital, and this will come when East- 
ern capitalists are convinced of the solid character of your mines.' 

' ' Speaking of the proposed bedrock flume in Grimes Creek, Mr. Smart thinks 
it will be a great success. ' It runs through hundreds of acres of placer dig- 
gings from which $100,000,000 have already been taken, and there are, I think 
millions there yet.' 

' ' Concluding, Captain Smart said : 'You have in Idaho, geologically speaking, 
a better prepared country for the production of metals, the veins are more 
numerous, and judging from the vast amounts taken from your placer fields, 
they are better filled with rich and valuable ores, and they are larger and more 
continuous than I have seen in any other mining section in the United States.' " 

USEFUL MINERALS, ETC. 

Besides her precious metals, Idaho also has an abundance of iron, coal, lead, 
copper, salt, sulphur, mica, marble, sandstone, granite, limestone, and some 
cinnabar, and tin. The Territory is, therefore, well equipped by nature for many 
industries besides those now engaging her attention. She has iron varied 
enough in kind and quality, and va«t enough in quantity, for the uses of a 
great nation. Her copper ores are scarcely less abundant, and her coal fields, 
though but slightly developed, promise to meet all possible requirements in 
the near future. 

Ikon. — Near Rocky Bar is a 7-foot vein of ore, carrying 56 per cent, 
pure iron. Within two miles of Challis is an immense body of micaceous iron, 
yielding 50 to 60 per cent, of that metal. At several points along Wood River 



IDAHO. 65 

oxide ores, carrying 50 to 75 per cent, iron are found in inexhaustible quanti- 
ties. Near Baker City, along the Western Idaho boundary, are mammoth 
deposits of metallic iron, carrying 70 to 90 per cent, of that metal. Three 
miles east of South Mountain, in Southwestern Idaho, is the Narragansett iron 
mine, where a surface of 100 by GOO feet of the vein has been stripped, and the 
limit not reached. A cut into this vein twenty feet deep and fifty feet wide, 
exposes a solid body of magnetic and specular ore, which numerous assays 
prove to contain 95 to 98 per cent, pure iron. This ore is so pure and easily 
smelted that it has, in its natural state, been cast into shoes and dies for stamp 
mills at a Silver City foundry. A 15-foot vein of hematite, near by, is also 
rich in iron, and carries $30 per ton in gold. We have noted many other 
valuable deposits of iron in the Territory, among these several within a day's 
ride of Lewiston, in North Idaho, containing from 50 to 75 per cent. iron. 

Coal. — Bituminous coal is found in apparently inexhaustible quantities 
along Bear Lake, near the Southeastern Idaho boundary. It is said to be a 
fine quality for coking and for furnace use. The coal of the beds on Goose 
Creek, seventy-five miles south of Shoshone, in Southern Idaho, is pronounced 
by experienced geologists to be a brown lignite, and similar to the famous 
German brown coal. It is of an excellent quality for heating, steam, and gas 
purposes. The beds, ten in number, vary in thickness from 3>£ feet to 18 feet, 
and lie in two distinct series, with 75 to 100 feet of sandstone between. All 
the parting between the various veins is of sandstone, and rather hard, requir- 
ing no timbering in working. One of the beds, and one upon which 
the greatest amount of work has been done, is eighteen feet in thick- 
ness, with one small parting, showing a face of solid coal fourteen 
feet in thickness. Access to the region is easy from the Oregon Short 
Line. The carboniferous formation extends over an area of perhaps 
twenty miles square ; the principal out-cropping besides those of the 
main beds on Goose Creek are to be found on Trapper Creek and on Grouse 
Creek, where a limited amount of fine coking coal has been found. Coal 
mines are open on Smith's Fork and on Twin Creeks, along the Oregon Short 
Line in Eastern Idaho, and the famous Mammoth mine shows a vein seventy 
feet thick of clear coal, and with adjacent veins, separated by thin veins of clay, 
will aggregate 200 feet in thickness. A good quality of lignite has been found 
near Boise, bituminous at Horse Shoe Bend, twenty-five miles from Caldwell, 
also between Payette and Weiser Rivers, forty miles from Caldwell, and at the 
Big Bend of Snake River, forty miles from Weiser. A good blacksmithing 
coal has also been found on Sucker Creek, twenty-two miles north of Silver 
City, and several large deposits near Lewiston, in Northern Idaho. None of 
these veins are worked to any considerable extent, because wood for fuel has 
been so plentiful and cheap, but the day is fast approaching when a good coal 
mine will be classed a bonanza in Idaho, by virtue of railway extension and 
the activity in mining and manufacturing enterprises. 

Copper. — St. Charles mining district, in the eastern edge of Idaho, near the 
Oregon Short Line, contains copper ore assaying 60 to 80 per cent., and native 
copper of great purity. The copper deposit can be traced for thirty-five miles. 
Along the southwestern edge of Camas Prairie, near Mountain Home, is an 
extensive network of copper veins, from one to six feet in thickness, their ores 
6 



66 IDAHO. 

containing about 40 per cent, copper. Near Brownlee's Ferry, forty miles 
north of Weiser, are several large veins running 60 per cent, copper, and fifty 
miles farther north in the Seven Devils district, are great outcrops of peacock 
copper ore assaying 65 per cent, copper and $25 in gold and silver per ton. 
There are many other copper deposits in Alturas and Custer Counties. 

Lead. — Idaho is a great producer of lead. Wood River, Smoky, Bay Horse, 
Viola, Cceur d'Alene, and other districts are heavy shippers of lead ores, con- 
taining 50 to 80 percent, lead and $50 to $200 in silver to the ton. The Wood 
River mines alone ship from 20,000 to 30,000 tons of lead annually. 

Cinnabar occurs in nearly all the placer claims of Idaho County. At 
Miller's Camp, twenty miles west of Warren, it is found in such quantities as 
to prove troublesome in washing gold, filling the riffles where gold should 
lodge. Although the vein or lode has been persistently sought for, it has not 
been found. In one gulch pieces of iron ore containing from 10 to 50 per cent, 
of gold have been found, but its source has not yet been traced. Thin ore has 
been observed in the same locality. 

Salt. — About sixty miles northeast of Soda Springs, in a small side valley 
which opens into Salt Creek, near what is known as the Old Lander Emigrant 
Road, are the famous salt springs of Oneida County. No pumping is required, 
but the water is run through wooden pipes into large galvanized iron pans, in 
which the salt is made by boiling the water. The water is as cold as ordinary 
spring water, and is perfectly clear, showing how completely the saline matter 
is held in solution. The salt is shoveled out once in thirty minutes, and after 
draining twenty-five hours, is thence thrown into the drying house, there to 
remain until sacked and ready for shipping. The supply of water would 
warrant 2,500 pounds of salt per day. There is another small spring near by, 
which yields water enough for 2,000 pounds of salt per day for a portion of 
the year. The owners began to supply the local markets in 1866, at 5 cents 
per pound. 

Following is the analysis of the Oneida salt made by Dr. Piggott of Balti- 
more. It shows a higher percentage of pure salt than the celebrated Onondaga 
brand, of Syracuse, while neither Liverpool, Turk's Island, nor Saginaw salt 
approaches it in purity, or is as white, clear, or soluble in liquids: 

Chloride of sodium (pure salt) 97.79 

Sulphate of soda '. 1 .54 

Chloride of calcium 67 

Sulphate of magnesia Trace 

Total '. 100.00 

The increasing demand for salt from the smelting works of Idaho and Mon- 
tana should in time, with improved transportation facilities, make the Oneida 
salt works of inestimable value. As it is, a very nice business has been done 
at these works, the product having for years been from 600,000 to 1,500,000 
pounds per annum * 

Marble. — Marble has long been known to exist in the valley of the Snake. 
The marble bluffs in the vicinity of the Bonanza Bar, sixteen miles below 
American Falls, have been known for years to furnish a good, marketable 
quality, but nothing was attempted toward its utilization until recently. The 
Union Pacific mineralogist and geologist some time ago took samples of the 



IDAHO. 67 

marble to Omaha, where it was found to be of a quality hardly second to the 
best Italian. Machinery will soon be put up for quarrying and sawing the 
marble and putting it in marketable shape. It is now being worked into mon- 
uments, etc., on a small scale, by a marble cutter, who ships it from Shoshone. 
Large deposits of white and variegated marble are found along the Clearwater, 
and also in Kootenai and Cassia Counties. 

Building Stone. — Granite and sandstone of the finest quality — white, pink, 
gray, and other shades — easily quarried and worked into any desirable shape, 
abound in various localities along the Oregon Short Line. In Ncz Perces 
County, Northern Idaho, there is a quarry of sandstone of superior quality 
for making grindstones or other stones for sharpening edged tools. 

Limestone. — There are inexhaustible quantities of excellent limestone' 
near Hailey, Boise, Weiser, and elsewhere, from which a superior article of 
lime is made. 

Sulphur. — There is a mountain of almost pure sulphur, running to 85 per 
cent, of that useful commodity, at Soda Springs, Eastern Idaho. The 
sulphur has been mined and shipped in a small way for several years, 
while fifty miles of expensive wagon transportation was necessary, and now, 
with a railroad at hand, the enterprise should be pushed on a large scale. 

Mica. — Forty miles north of Weiser, near Weiser River, are two ledges, 
8 x 10 feet wide each, of mica. The mines are being developed, and thousands 
of tons of mica are now on their dumps. Clear, merchantable sheets, 4x6 
inches in size, can be extracted in vast quantities. Deposits of mica are also 
known to exist near Pend d' Oreille Lake, and south of Lewiston, in Northern 
Idaho. Also at the City of Rocks, in what is known as " The Circle, " fifty 
miles south of Shoshone, is a mica prospect, which is thought to be valuable. 
Sheets a foot in extent are obtained, which show a quality of mica which may 
prove to be of commercial value. It is tough and transparent. 

Brick Clay. — Brick clay and potter's clay are plentiful in several localities. 
The manufacture of tine pressed brick is carried on at Hailey, Ketchum, and 
other points, and a good quality of deep red brick are made at almost every 
prominent point along the Oregon Short Line. 

FISHING AND HUNTING. 

Idaho is the earthly paradise of the sportsman. As for trout, Idaho waters 
arc simply alive with them. During thousands of miles of travel in the Idaho 
mountains in the fishing season, we can not say that we ever halted two nights 
where we could not catch a nice mess in an hour. They are so plentiful in 
different lakes and streams that they are caught by the wagon load for market. 
The real delicate, gamy mountain trout, weighing from a half pound to two 
pounds, and the salmon trout, affording just about as much sport and as fine 
eating, weighing from two to ten pounds, are often found ready to respond to 
fly or bait in the same waters. Then there are other varieties of fish in some of 
the streams, although none are so numerous as the trout. Salmon run up the 
Columbia River into the Snake and its many tributaries, there spawn, and 
return late in the spring or early summer. Sturgeon of enormous size, fre- 
quently weighing from 600 to 1,000 pounds, are abundant in Snake River. 
The Payette Lakes and Sawtooth Lakes are the homes of the red fish. This 



68 IDAHO. 

is a large, beautiful fish, weighing from two and a half to six pounds, is of a 
bright red color (and changing to a beautiful blue soon after being taken from 
the water), with head and fins of light brown, and is excellent eating. By some 
they are believed to be the real blue fish of the ocean, whence they come regu- 
larly to spawn, like the salmon. A species known as bull trout is found in 
Payette Lake: they are larger than the ordinary salmon trout, and weigh from 
five to eleven pounds. 

No better trout fishing can be found in the world than in Silver Creek and 
Wood River, near Hailey, or in the headwaters of Salmon River, Payette River, 
Snake River, and other streams. Much of the finest fishing is within a stone's 
throw of the Oregon Short Line Railway. 

Grizzly, black, and cinnamon bears are still numerous in the forests and 
mountains. The silver-tipped bear is more rare. A specimen exhibited at the 
New Orleans Exposition was captured among the mountains of Sawtooth 
Range, a few miles north of Ketchum. The American elk is found now chiefly 
in the northern counties; although a herd of ninety was found by a young 
hunter from St. Louis, near Hailey, in November, 1888. Antelope are still 
numerous throughout the Territory, as are also black-tail and white-tail deer. 

In addition to those already mentioned, a list of the more common native 
quadrupeds of the Territory, would include the Rocky Mountain sheep, 
California lion, yellow wolf, coyote, moose, wolverine, lynx or catamount, 
wild cat, fox (black, gray, silver, and cross), weasel, badger, marten, mink, 
large striped skunk, small spotted skunk, large gray, ground, pine, and flying 
squirrel, chipmunk, otter, raccoon, woodchuck, gopher, mole, wood mouse, 
kangaroo rat, and jack rabbit. 

The birds are those common to the Northwest. Eagles (bald and golden) are 
abundant in the mountains, especially in the neighborhood of streams. Wild 
duck, swan, geese, pelican, sage hen, chicken, grouse, and quail are plentiful 
in season. The burrowing owl, fish hawk, and buzzard may be mentioned 
among the large birds. In addition to these, are the usual varieties of wood- 
pecker, raven, hawk, pigeon, meadow lark, magpie, red-winged blackbird, 
bluebird, robin, snipe, plover, curlew, sparrow, cross bill, linnet, oriole, 
California canary, swallow, and two varieties of humming birds. 

The huntsman of either large or small game can rendezvous at either Soda 
Springs, Pocatello, Hailey, Ketchum, Boise City, Caldwell, Weiser, or Payette, 
and not go amiss. 

A tourist writing from Hailey recently said : " I have said nothing about the 
game we have found in this Territory, and as my letter is already too long I 
will only say that the different varieties supplied by the proprietors of the 
Grand Pacific Hotel to their patrons at their world-renowned annual game 
dinners could be duplicated here by a couple of hunters in a few days' 
time." 

PLEASURE AND HEALTH RESORTS. 

Here the " Gem of the Mountains " stands unrivaled. No region of similar 
extent on the globe can compare with Idaho in the number, variety, and merit 
of attractions for the pleasure and health seeker. The enchanting beauty of its 
many Alpine lakes, the majesty and splendor of its thousands of snow-clad 



IDAHO. 69 

peaks, towering as they do, above the peaceful landscapes of its loveliest vales, 
and the indescribable glory of its wondrous cataracts in the depths of the 
grandest canons on earth, enrapture artist and poet alike. Amid such scenes, 
what a privilege it is to drink in an atmosphere whose every breath is a tonic, 
and to partake of sparkling waters, whose efficacy is beyond compare. There 
are other enchanting waters — lakes, rivers, and rivulets alike— with myriads 
of trout and other fish disporting themselves in their translucent depths, or 
waterfowl covering their often placid surfaces, and surrounded by forests 
inhabited by the elk, bear, deer, mountain sheep, goat, and other game. What 
a land for the enthusiastic Nirnrod or disciple of Izaak Walton. 

The lakes, the rivers, the hunting and fishing, and the all but perfect climate 
have already been treated under appropriate headings. As for the ideal 
mountain camp grounds, the glades, the parks, and valleys — all marvels of 
picturesque beauty — they are almost numberless. Various resorts, where all 
^an spend hours or months of pleasure, already possess the luxuries and conveni-, 
ences generally supplied by modern hotels elsewhere. The name of mineral 
springs — healing waters — is legion. Hot and cold, delicious as the nectar of 
the gods, or offensive enough for one's worst enemy, soda, sulphur, iron, salt, 
magnesia — these and others of every form known — in number sufficient for 
the uses of multitudes and in volume and efficacy apparently ample ' ' for the 
healing of the nations." 

The most remarkable group of mineral springs in America are the Soda 
Springs of Bingham County, in Eastern Idaho. They are situated in a roman- 
tic valley, 5,779 feet above the level of the sea, surrounded by lofty snow-clad 
mountains, and easily reached from the East or West by the Oregon Short 
Line, which passes through this region on its way to Portland. Bear River, 
which is a tributary of Great Salt Lake, flows through this depression in 
the mountains from east to west. On the north side, Soda. Creek, fed by 
innumerable springs, and carrying a large volume of water, flows down to its 
junction with Bear River. The town and station of Soda Springs are on this 
creek, a mile above its junction with Bear River. Within a radius of two or 
three miles are scores of large springs, the waters ranging from almost ice-cold 
to warm, containing magnesia, soda, iron, sulphur, and various other constit- 
uents, in such proportions as to have a great power on disease, and some of 
them being so highly charged with carbonic acid and other gases as to prove 
a most pleasing beverage. The waters are a superb tonic, and are effecting 
remarkable cures of skin and blood diseases, dyspepsia, rheumatism, and 
many other ills our flesh is heir to. Steamboat Springs, so named by General 
Fremont in 1843, have a temperature of 87°. Many of the more prominent 
springs have names such as the Jewsharp, Hooper, Champagne, Formation, etc., 
but the one from which water is shipped, and which is free from sediment of 
all kinds, is called Idanha, the Indian name for Idaho, which means "Gem of 
the Mountains." The water from this spring is most palatable, and has a 
delightfully refreshing and invigorating effect. These delicious soda and mag- 
nesia waters are becoming so popular that train-loads are shipped each season 
to consumers in distant States. The company developing this laudable in- 
dustry is now able to put up 10,000 bottles daily. During a single month in 
1888 the Union Pacific Railway shipped over 100 tons of this bottled elixir from 
Soda Springs Station. 



70 IDAHO. . 

The Soda Springs region abounds in other attractions worth crossing our 
Continent to see, among them magnificent drives, beautiful lakes, extinct 
volcanoes, geyser cones, sulphur mountains, a boiling lake of the same material, 
some wonderful caves, superb fishing and hunting, and an atmosphere calcu- 
lated to bring the flush of health to any but the most hopeless invalid. It 
promises to be the great sanitorium of the West, and for years has been the 
resort of hundreds annually, who have been willing to " stage it" for forty or 
fifty, or even one hundred miles, to reach its charmed precincts. Soda 
Creek, Bear River, Blackfoot River, Port Neuf River, and Swan and Bear 
Lakes are all close by, and furnish unlimited numbers of trout. The Black- 
foot and Port Keuf are particularly the favorite streams for this sport, 
while in the mountains there are bear and elk. 

Says a writer: "Mountain scenery could scarcely be finer than it is here, 
in this lovely pass through the Wahsatch, and the atmosphere is one of its chief 
delights. It is dry, cool, and extremely invigorating. One wakes from sleep 
refreshed, and after a draught from the sparkling Idanha, feels as if he had 
discovered anew the Fountain of Youth. The days are warm, bright, and 
pleasant, but fires are generally required night and day throughout the sum- 
mer." 

Four miles southwest of Soda Springs is Swan Lake, one of the loveliest 
natural gems set in the Wahsatch chain. It reclines in an_ oval basin, whose 
rim is ten feet above the surrounding country. The shores are densely 
covered with trees, shrubs, and the luxuriant undergrowth native to that 
country. The outlet is a series of small, moss-covered basins, symmetrically 
arranged, the clear water overflowing the banks, trickling into the nearest 
emerald tub, then successively into others, until it forms a sparkling stream, 
and dances away to a confluence with Bear River in the valley below. It is 
a matter of common belief among old residents of the locality that the lake is 
bottomless, no sounding having yet developed its depth. Adjacent to this fit 
abode for water nymphs is the singular sulphur lake, out of whose center 
liquid sulphur incessantly boils, and coats the shores with thick deposits 
looking as though it might be the direct out-cropping of Plutonian regions. 

The Union Pacific Company has erected a superb hotel at Soda Springs for 
the accommodation of the thousands of visitors. It is built in the Swiss chalet 
style, is three stories high, surrounded on three sides by a wide veranda, and 

surmounted with handsome towers. It is so built that there are no inside 

« 

rooms, but from every side one can look out upon the magnificent mountain 
scenery. It is lighted with electric lights, and has all modern conveniences 
and comforts, and is kept in the usually faultless style of the Pacific Hotel 
Company, by whom it has been leased. 

Soda Springs is an ideal health resort, to which tens of thousands will 
journey to find all that could be wished for by the most exacting. Its accessi- 
bility; the wildness, singularity, and sublimity of its scenery; the coolness, 
salubrity, and invigorating influences of its climate, its inviting baths, its 
veritable founts of youth, its dozens of rivers and lakes, alive with game 
trout, and its deep solitudes of mountain and forest, only broken as haunts for 
noble game — these alone would render it a Mecca to be eagerly sought, 
saying nothing of its other regal charms which could be elaborated in appro- 
priate space. 



IDAHO. 71 

Westward from Soda Springs, the Oregon Short Line route lies for forty- 
miles amid some of the most interesting, pleasing, and picturesque scenes in all 
nature. In winding its way down out of the confines of the rugged Wahsatch 
Mountains to the Great Snake River Valley, it follows Port Neuf River. 
Giant cones and craters of extinct volcanoes, yawning chasms, extending into 
the earth's unknown depths, dark caves, and caverns, lofty palisades, all relics 
of the volcanic age, vie with the gentler phases of an exquisitely beautiful 
valley panorama to fill the tourist's eye. The river, sinuous as a serpent's trail, 
is often broken by loveliest cataracts. The valley is alternately a solid bed of 
highly-colored wild flowers, a luxuriantly-grassed meadow, and well-tilled 
fields. Towering supremely into the skies are here and there the snow-capped 
heights, to complete the realization of an artist's dream. Midway between 
Soda Springs and Pocatello, a fine group of hot sulphur springs burst from the 
rocks at the water's edge. Here almost anywhere the angler can land a basket 
of trout in a few hours within a few feet of the railway track, or the sportsman 
can bag his dozen ducks or geese in an equally short period. At Pocatello, 
where the Oregon Short Line crosses the Utah & Northern Railway, are fine 
hotel accommodations provided by the Union Pacific Company, and this is an 
excellent rendezvous for the tourist. 

About twenty-five miles west of Pocatello, the Oregon Short Line crosses 
Snake River amid the roar and spray of the American Falls. It is a wild, 
weird spectacle, not soon forgotten. Happily for the tourist, nature offered a 
bold crag in mid river for a pier in just the right location to tempt the con- 
structing engineer — hence the great iron bridge is in the very midst of the falls 
and rapids. While the descent is only about fifty feet, the enormous volume 
of the river, here spread to some 1,500 feet in width, is so terrifically convulsed 
by its mad plunge over a variety of elevations, that the beholder is amply 
repaid by his complete and convenient view from the car- window and plat- 
form. 

About 100 miles west of American Falls is Shoshone, the point from which 
the Wood River Branch Railway diverges northward from the main line to the 
Wood River region. It is also the nearest railway point to the great Shoshone 
Falls, which are reached by a pleasant twenty-five mile drive southward. 
Shoshone Falls are Idaho's chief wonder and pride. In some respects they 
have no equal — and certainly no prototype in the known world. They are the 
very incarnation of all the intensely fascinating features of the world's few 
great cataracts. No visitor can say that he has ever eleswhere beheld such a 
wondrous scene ; none will ever regret a trip across our Continent to see it. 
All are wont to compare Shoshone with Niagara. As well compare two abso- 
lutely dissimilar forms of architecture. There is nothing in either to remind 
one of the other, save the vast basin of foaming, surging waters at the bottom. 
Niagara winds its way monotonously through a comparatively level country, 
and drops methodically into a commonplace amphitheatre. It is all power 
and majesty. Shoshone is this and more. The weirdness and enchantments 
of its abysmal home, and the singularity and sublimity of its mighty plunge 
mock all attempts at description. Shoshone pours torrent-like through one of 
the grandest canons on earth. Where it pauses to take its awful leap, parti- 
colored and fantastically-wrought cliffs rise straight 1,000 feet above it. All 



72 IDAHO. 

its vast volume is instantly dashed over a myriad of jutting rocks into a world of 
spray, whose fleecy, graceful columns often ascend 1,000 feet in the air. With 
somewhat less volume than Niagara, Shoshone is one-third higher, and while 
its face possesses in the main a regular outline, the minor projections along the 
line of descent obstruct the downward movement just enough to seemingly 
transform every atom of water into spray and foam. Here is the indescribable 
splendor and beauty of Shoshone. It is all activity. Not a moment is the 
enrapturing scene the same. The gorgeous spray-columns are often dissipated 
into a thousand fantastic shapes, by coming into contact with glittering fnasses 
of snow-white foam, the whole under the radiance of the sun being enhanced 
to beauty indescribable by the richest colors of the rainbow. The river, 
within a few rods of the great falls, drops seventy feet, then quickly narrow- 
ing to 750 feet in width, the vast volume leaps into an abyss 210 feet deep. 
Above the brink the whole breadth of the river is broken by a dozen small 
islands, which the water has carved into fantastic forms ; rounding some into 
low domes, sharpening others into mere pillars, and now and then wearing 
into deep caves. A luxuriance of ferns and mosses, and almost tropical 
wealth of green leaves and velvety drapery line the rocks and banks, toning 
down what would otherwise be an oppressively rugged setting to a picture of 
rarest beauty. Nature has left little for the hand of art to finish here. 

Here is an elegant pen picture by the lamented Richardson: " The cataract 
is unequaled in the world, save by Niagara, of which it vividly reminds us. 
It is not all height, like Yosemite, nor all breadth and power like the Great 
Falls of the Missouri, nor all strength and volume like the Niagara; but com- 
bines the three elements. The torrent is less than Niagara, and its crescent 
summit appears less than 1,000 feet wide. But the descent — 210 feet — is one- 
third greater, while above the brink, solemn portals of lava, rising for hundreds 
of feet on each bank, supply an element of grandeur which the monarch of 
cataracts altogether lacks. The fall itself is of the purest white, interspersed 
with myriads of glittering, glassy drops — a cataract of snow with an avalanche 
of jewels. Mocking and belittling all human splendor, nature is here in her 
lace and pearls, her robe of diamonds and tiara of rainbow." 

On the south bank of the river, which is reached by ferry, is a well-built and 
elegantly-furnished hotel, where the tourist will find excellent accommodations. 
It is located on a beautiful natural lawn 200 feet above, and overlooking the 
falls. From its balconies can be enjoyed all the finer aspects of the magnifi- 
cent panorama above faintly outlined. A guide is at hand to point out the 
many wonders in the immediate vicinity. Among these are the Twin Falls of 
Snake River, about three miles above the Great Falls. These are 150 feet high 
and are well worth a visit. Interesting excursions, boating, fishing, and hunt- 
ing, all are here to invite a summer sojourn. Stages make the trip to and from 
the railroad in a few hours. 

North of Shoshone about fifty miles, the Wood River branch of the Oregon 
Short Line fairly enters the great Wood River region. Hailey and Ketchum, 
located in the heart of this region, probably arrive as near to all the require- 
ments of the tourist and health-seeker as any of the resorts of Idaho. They 
are only twelve miles apart by rail, both picturesquely located on the banks 
of Wood River, Hailey at an altitude of 5,200 feet, and Ketchum about 500 
feet higher. 






IDAHO. 73 

The tourist who wishes an "outing" where he can enjoy all the advantages 
of luxurious hotel accommodations and the aids incident to tourist life in one 
of the prettiest and most progressive little cities in the whole West will be suited 
at Hailey . Its superb location in the beautiful Wood River Valley, in the midst of 
lofty mountain ranges and on the banks of the swift Wood River, is most attract- 
ive. Its delightfully cool, summer climate, and its atmosphere, alone a luxury 
to breathe, are always restful and invigorating to the visitor from the heated 
East. Then the bustle, thrift and taste of its 2,500 people, as evidenced by its 
splendid public buildings and handsome homes, its electric lights, water- works, 
and other adjuncts to a high cililization, are all conducive to the enjoyment of 
the health or pleasure seeker. 

The Alturas and Merchant's hotels, solid three-story brick structures, with 
ample accommodations for 150 guests each, are a genuine surprise to all comers. 
They are elegantly furnished, and the Alturas, whose every apartment is 
lighted with electricity and whose construction and furnishings were with 
special regard to the wants of tourists, commands a vista of mountain, river, 
and valley scenery that is a perpetual delight. The river and several creeks 
within five minutes' walk are alive with mountain trout. The nearer valleys 
and hillsides afford good grouse and chicken shooting, while the forests within 
a day's drive are full of deer and bear. A twelve-mile drive down the beauti- 
ful Wood River Valley takes the sportsman to Silver Creek, which is known far 
and near as the finest trout stream in the western mountains and also affords 
good duck shooting. 

But the crowning glory of this whole region is the famous Hailey Hot 
Springs, located in full view of the town, and only a mile and a half distant. 
The ride or walk thither is very pleasant, leading through a picturesque little 
valley, and the location, in a lovely glen in sight of several rich mines, is very 
pleasing. Large volumes of water of a temperature of 144°, and containing 
sulphate of soda, iron, magnesia, sulphur, and other desirable ingredients, are 
emitted from scores of springs. Four commodious rock-walled and cemented 
swimming baths, and many solid porcelain tub baths are provided. These are 
all supplied with elegantly-appointed dressing rooms, lighted by electricity, 
and under the same roof as the luxuriously-furnished chambers. Many 
patients have gone to these with chronic cases, believed to be hopeless, of neu- 
ralgia, paralysis, dyspepsia, inflammatory or mercurial rheumatism, and other 
complaints for which the Arkansas springs are considered a specific, and after a 
few months of bathing and drinking, have left completely restored. The 
baths are, however, still more popular with those in good health, thousands 
visiting them annually for the delightfully exhilarating effects of a plunge, and 
for the many attendant pleasures of this all but perfect resort. The many 
attractions are thus briefly outlined by a Chicago visitor, of the autumn of 1888, 
in a letter to his home paper : 

"The Hailey Hot Springs site proves a princely domain, embracing as many 
natural beauties and advantages for the scheme now unfolding as any between 
the oceans. To commence with, the hot and cold water from the various 
groups of springs were piped separately through pipes ranging from four to six 
inches in diameter down to the most commanding site in full view of, and only 
one and a half miles from, Hailey and thence led all through the ample grounds 



74 IDAHO. 

and to the various building sites. This superb water system has used up nearly 
two miles of pipe, and both hot and cold water have such a gravity pressure 
that they can be thrown all over the buildings. Then upon foundations broad 
and deep, was placed the main building, over 100 feet square, with numerous 
wings and broad verandas almost entirely encircling it. It is a two-story 
structure in the old colonial style, most pleasing and appropriate in its setting of 
lofty mountains and nearer stretches of picturesque valleys. This main build- 
ing embraces ample restaurant and dining facilities, parlors, reading rooms, 
billiard rooms for ladies and gentlemen, ten-pin alleys, a grand banqueting 
and ball room, with a monster old-fashioned fire place in one end, large enough 
to receive the largest cordwood, etc. It also includes ladies' and gentlemen's 
dressing and toilet rooms, and numerous solid porcelain baths on both upper 
and lower floor, and a superb complement of chambers on the second floor, 
from the windows and balconies, of which can be obtained views which should 
entrance any one short of a misanthrope. Then, near by, there are ladies' and 
gents' swimming baths 30 x 60 feet each, of solid masonry, and smoothly 
cemented with the best Portland cement. These have ample dressing rooms 
by the dozen, in which the bather can recline in easy chairs or upon comfort- 
able lounges. 

" There are other smaller plunge baths for ladies and gentlemen, but what a 
royal place for a health-giving douche are these large rock- walled, rock-bottomed 
plunges! There is nothing like them in all the West that I know of , and if 
they are not quite good enough for the most fastidious bather, think of those 
snowy porcelain tubs, each with its luxuriously-appointed dressing room. 
Other features are artistically laid-out grounds, the whole to form a perfect 
park, with its rippling mountain brooks, placid lakes, and dashing waterfalls, 
sequestered walks, pleasant drives, ample croquet, lawn tennis, and other 
amusement grounds — in fact, about everything to coax the visitor to one long 
summer's pleasure. Hot and cold water is led everywhere in all rooms, even 
through the commodious barns. Nor will there be a nook or corner in which 
the electric light will not gleam forth. Electric annunciators are found in every 
apartment, even to every dressing room of every bath, and speaking tubes con- 
nect the barns, restaurant, and other leading apartments with the office. The 
Company are simply doing what the great merits of the waters, the unsurpassed 
location, the all but perfect climate, the superb trout fishing and hunting, mag- 
nificent scenery, and the miles upon miles of the finest natural drives to be 
found in any mountain country on earth, fully justify. These springs, with 
the rudest appliances, have worked wonderful cures upon hundreds who have 
come afflicted with rheumatism, dyspepsia, lead poisoning, liver and kidney 
troubles, and various disorders of the blood. With all these splendid facilities 
for their use, they will now soon be the resort of tens of thousands." 

Bolton's Hot Springs, located on Deer Creek, five miles from Hailey, are 
also a strong attraction. Their waters, which are led into well- arranged tub 
and plunge baths, are efficacious for all blood diseases. The drive thither, the 
fishing within a stone's throw, the boating and hunting, are all features worthy 
of note. 

Ketchum also Combines many attractions for the summer visitor. There is 
choice of several streams affording superb trout fishing. Pleasant drives lead 



IDAHO. 75 

into surrounding mountains in all directions, and the summer climate is all 
that could be desired. The Guyer Hot Springs, however, are the great 
attraction at Ketchum. They are located in a most romantic nook about two 
miles from Ketchum, on the banks of Warm Springs Creek. An immense 
volume of water here bursts from many crevices in the rocks, at a temperature 
of about 150°, and, where not confined, drops in many pretty falls into the 
creek, some twenty feet below. These springs are especially applicable to the 
cure of rheumatism, and the long train of diseases led by or intimately associ- 
ated with dyspepsia, gout, liver complaints, and impurities of the blood. 
Patients suffering with such disorders often derive about as much benefit from 
drinking the waters as from bathing in them. Among the improvements are a 
two story hotel, in which Brussels carpets and nice, soft beds are leading 
features, with reception and dining halls, billiard halls, extensive stables, cot- 
tages for guests, two large plunge baths, a number of tub baths, etc. The 
water is conveyed through pipes from the springs to the several bath houses, 
and is so arranged that any desired temperature can be had. Some neatly fur- 
nished sleeping rooms have baths attached, so that patients who desire can 
have all the benefits of these without any exposure to the outer air, or without 
necessitating leaving their room. The cuisine and all details of entertainment 
are home-like and excellent. Following is an analysis of the Guyer Spring 
water, made by Prof. R. Ogden Doremus, of Bellevue Hospital Medical Col- 
lege, New York . 

Grains per 
Imp. gal. 

Sodium Chloride 3.578 

Sodium Carbonate 9.965 

Calcium Sulphate 6.574 

Magnesium, Sulphate 0.534 

Magnesium, Chloride 0.914 

Organic Matter, with traces of Iron and Silica 1.240 

TotalSolids 22.805 

North of Ketchum twenty-five miles is the wonderfully rugged Sawtooth 
region, so named on account of the abruptness of the mountain range, which is 
its central figure. It is the ideal " camping out " corner of Idaho. Hundreds 
yearly avail themselves of its surpassing attractions in the way of enchanting 
lakes, towering snow-capped mountains, trout streams, and hot springs. The 
trip from either Hailey or Ketchum is one of continued delight, and every- 
thing in the way of an outfit can be procured at either place. An exhilarating 
atmosphere and healing waters, in the midst of noble pines and enchanting 
scenery, fishing, hunting, riding, and exploring, and excellent hotel accom- 
modations, an ever-fruitful field for the mind in the mining, milling, and 
railway enterprises — these, together with an easy accessibility, are a few of the 
attributes which in the future will render Hailey and Ketchum the most 
popular of Rocky Mountain resorts. 

Among the attractions of Western Idaho are the Boise Hot Springs, four 
miles east of Boise City. The springs are highly medicinal, containing iron, 
sulphur, soda, lime, and magnesia. There are vapor, shower, plunge, and 
mud baths. The temperature of the springs varies from 125° to 220° Fahren- 
heit. They are already favorite resorts, and need only to be known to become 
widely celebrated. 



76 IDAHO. 

Tourists will be interested in the fact that Idaho possesses about 600,000 
acres of lake area. Scattered among the mountain ranges are countless lakes 
of every description. Kootenai is the lake county of Idaho. Within her 
boundaries are Cceur d'Alene, Pend d'Oreille, Kanisku, Cocolalla, and numer- 
ous smaller lakes. Cceur d'Alene Lake is about thirty miles long, with a width 
varying from two to four miles. A daily line of steamers plies its waters from 
Cceur d'Alene, to the Old Mission. Its waters are clear and cool, and abound 
in fish. The banks are mountainous, covered with timber, Cceur d'Alene, 
St. Joseph's, and St. Mary's Rivers flow into it, and the Spokane is its outlet. 
At the lower end of the lake a commodious hotel offers accommodations for 
visitors and tourists. 

Lake Pend d'Oreille is doubtless one of the most beautiful sheets of water in 
the United States. It is of irregular shape, about sixty miles in length, and of 
a width varying from three to fifteen miles. It is in reality a widening of 
Clark's Fork, and winds its picturesque way among the wood-covered moun- 
tains, which rise up from its shores in a never-ceasing panorama of beautiful 
surprises. An excellent view is had from the car windows of the Northern 
Pacific, which crosses a neck of the lake upon a trestle bridge 8,400 feet long. 
There are two steamers on the lake at present. If unsurpassed natural scenery, 
abundance of fish, and plenty of game in the surrounding forests can offer any 
attractions, Pend d'Oreille must, within a few years, become one of the most 
noted resorts in the Northwest. 

Kanisku Lake, in the northern part of the county, is about twenty miles 
long, and half as wide. This and others are situated in wild and still 
unexplored regions. Lake Waha is a favorite resort for the people at Lewis- 
ton. It is a small sheet of water not two miles long, and about half a mile 
wide. Its banks are precipitous, and covered with timber. One of its chief 
claims to popularity is its abundance of trout. An enthusiastic writer, in 
referring to Waha, says: "Nothing we have ever seen can exceed the 
tranquil beauty of this sylvan, this idyllic scene, with its mountain solitudes, 
unbroken by a discordant sound, and its wealth of charming landscapes and 
xanthic skies " 

Payette Lake is one of the sources of Payette River. It is situated in Boise 
County, about eighty-five miles north of Caldwell, on the Oregon Short Line, 
and is rapidly becoming a favorite resort for the people of Southern Idaho. 
It is about ten miles long and about half as wide. It is surrounded by mount- 
ains and is famous for its trout, red fish, and white fish. Its depth is 
unknown. 

Among the most beautiful of the smaller lakes is Tahoma, situated in the 
Sawtooth Mountains, at an elevation of 8,000 feet. Jt is about forty miles 
north of Ketchum, the present terminus of the Wood River Branch of the 
Oregon Short line, and is reached by one of the most picturesque mountain 
roads in the world. Twenty miles distant is the Lower or Big Sawtooth Lake. 
With the exception of the narrow, level space traversed by the road, the lake 
is mountain-locked, the peaks on one side rising a thousand feet above the sur- 
face of the water. These peaks are covered with evergreen timber, such as 
pine, spruce, and fir, while on the other side a mass of granite crags rises 1,500 
feet. From one of these crags leaps a large mountain stream, forming a fall 



IDAHO. 77 

some five hundred feet high, and completing one of the most exquisitely beau- 
tiful pictures in all nature. The lake is three by nine miles in extent, and has 
been sounded to a depth of 1,000 feet without striking bottom. 

Bear Lake lies in Southeastern Idaho and Northern Utah, the dividing line 
running through the center of the lake east and west, and is about twenty miles 
long and eight miles wide. It abounds in fish of various kinds, such as several 
kinds of trout — viz., salmon trout, silver trout, speckled trout, and mountain 
brook trout, also mullet and white fish, as well as chubs. The lake is fed by 
several mountain streams, and these also abound in fish. It has an outlet 
emptying into Bear River in the north. The shores of the lake are sandy and 
gravelly, affording a clean and easy approach. The water is shallow for a dis- 
tance of about a hundred yards, when it gradually deepens to an extent not as yet 
determined. The water is very clear, affording a view of the bottom at a 
depth of ten to fifteen feet. It is a splendid bathing resort, and the inhabit- 
ants living on its shores delight in this exercise, as well as others who visit 
the lake in the summer from distant localities. The Oregon Short Line skirts 
the northern shore. No doubt can exist in the mind of anyone who has vis- 
ited this beautiful lake, but in the near future this will be a favorite summer 
resort for the sportsman, the tourist and, pleasure-seeker, and that good hotels 
and accommodations will be provided, and the lake decked with sails. 

Henry Lake, about forty miles east of the Utah Northern Railway, on the 
Union Pacific route to Yellowstone National Park, is the admiration of all 
visitors. Its altitude is 6,443 feet, and it is two miles wide by five miles long. 
Peaks of the Rocky Mountains rise majestically 3,000 feet from near its shores. 
Its surface is dotted with islands and indented with graceful tongues of land, 
rich in foliage. Near by is Cliff Lake, which is three miles long by half a mile 
wide, and in whose azure depth 1,400 feet of line has failed to reach bottom. 
It is almost surrounded by vertical basaltic cliffs, while a conical pine-covered 
island rises from its bosom. Henry Lake and surroundings are well worthy 
a two or three days' halt, by those who delight in mountaineering, hunting, 
fishing, and sailing, or desire rest. 

Sixteen miles south of Caldwell, on the banks of Snake River, are the Given 
Hot Springs, which have effected some marvelous cures of rheumatism and 
kindred diseases. North of Caldwell from fifty to one hundred miles, are the 
great summer camping-grounds of the residents of Western Idaho. These are 
along Payette River, at Payette Lakes (already described), and in Salmon 
Meadows — a mountain park deservedly famous for its magnificent scenery, its 
superb climate, its rivers and creeks full of trout, and its mountain ranges alive 
with noble game. All these can be reached by easy drives from Caldwell and 
Weiser, on the Oregon Short Line. 

These are only a few of the Iddho resorts. Her hundreds of others from one 
to two miles above sea level afford an atmosphere which is an elixir itself. 
Into her princely area of 55,228,160 acres are crowded every variety of valley 
and mountain temperature. Sunshine, dry streets and a maximum of warm 
days may be enjoyed in her sheltered valleys in winter, or flowers and snow- 
banks and a frosty atmosphere may garnish the mountain camp-ground in 
midsummer. The range of mineral waters for either bathing or drinking pur- 
poses is probably greater than in any region of similar extent on the globe. 



78 IDAHO. 

Hot sulphur and soda for bathing, cold soda, seltzer, iron, chalybeate awt 
sulphur for drinking, are found at altitudes ranging from 2,000 to 8,000 feet 
above the sea, and in numerous cases are within sight of the railway. The 
scenic attractions are none the less varied. The invalid, whose mind must feed 
on something, can combine business and profit with the great aim of his sojourn, 
for adjacent to the most charming health-resorts are Idaho's grandest mining, 
smelting, and railroad enterprises. These offer an ever-fruitful study, and 
always present a field for business venture. Life everywhere is safe, and travel 
easy. No region of such multiplied attractions could be more accessible than 
this has now been rendered by the Union Pacific Kailway. These unparalleled 
attractions have already made the Territory the resort of thousands of summer 
visitors in search of health and recreation, and the permanent home of thou- 
sands of others who have fled from unhealthful sections of the East. When the 
remarkable cures which have been effected by these combined agencies are 
better known and understood, when Idaho becomes less of a terra incognita to 
the teeming populations of the East, then it will be felt that no extravagant 
claim is being made for the Territory when it is called the " Great Sanitarium 
of the United States." 

OUTLINE OF IDAHO COUNTIES. 

There are at present sixteen organized counties within the Territory, as fol- 
lows: Ada, Alturas, Bear Lake, Boise, Bingham, Cassia, Custer, Idaho, 
Kootenai, Lemhi, Latah, Nez Perces, Oneida, Owyhee, Shoshone, and Wash- 
ington. Of these, Alturas, Boise, Custer, Idaho, Lemhi, Owyhee, and Shoshone 
may be described as mining counties. Ada, Bear Lake, Bingham, Cassia, Nez 
Perces, Oneida, and Washington are chiefly agricultural. Kootenai has both 
mining and agricultural resources, but at present is chiefly remarkable for 
its magnificent forests of timber. This classification is, at the best, only gen- 
eral, as the mining counties of Alturas, Lemhi, and Owyhee are rapidly receiv- 
ing attention for farming and stock raising, while those above mentioned as 
agricultural, notably Washington County, are beginning to produce considera- 
ble mineral. Following is a brief outline of the physical characteristics of 
each: 

Ada. — In Western Idaho; about one-third agricultural, one-third mountain- 
ous and timbered, and the balance hilly grazing lands; elevation from 2,500 
feet in the lower valleys to 10,000 on the highest mountains; Boise, Snake, and 
Payette Rivers; climate of valleys very mild and soil unsurpassed for all grain 
and fruits raised in the latitude of Southern Illinois or Missouri; Oregon Short 
Line Railway runs the entire length of county east and west, and the Idaho 
Central through central portion north and south; principal products, cattle, 
wool, horses, grain, and fruits. 

Alturas. — In Southern Central Idaho; area, 19,000 square miles, or larger 
than New Hampshire and Vermont combined; about one-half mountainous 
(of which a large proportion is forest) and the balance mainly undulating 
plains of grazing lands, with here and there extensive arable valleys; eleva- 
tions of plain and valley, 4,000 to 6,000 feet; of mountains, 6,500 to 10,500; 
Wood River, Salmon River, Snake River, Malad River, and head-waters of 



IDAHO. 79 

Boise River; all hardy fruits, grains, and vegetables raised; soil, very deep; 
unexcelled for stock raising; principal products, horses, cattle, wool, gold, 
silver, and lead; Oregon Short Line runs across the southern portion of the 
county, and Wood River branch runs through the center north and south. 

Bear Lake. — In Southeastern Idaho; area, 2,000 square miles; elevation of 
valleys, 5,000 to 6,000 feet; of mountains, 7,000 to 12,000; two-thirds mountain- 
ous, nearly all of which is timbered; one-third arable, of which much is 
natural hay lands; soil excellent; Bear River and many small streams; pro- 
ducts, lumber, wool, beef, grain, butter, and cheese; Oregon Short Line Rail- 
way. 

Bingham. — In Eastern Idaho ; one-half mountainous, one-fourth hilly graz- 
ing lands, one-fourth very fertile agricultural lands; about one-half of mount- 
ain area timbered; elevation of valleys, 4,000 to 5,000 feet; of mountains, 6,000 
to 12,000; productions, cattle, wool, grain, and vegetables , Bear, Blackfoot, 
Port Neuf, and Snake Rivers; Oregon Short Line Railway runs across the 
county from east to west, and the Utah & Northern north and south. 

Boise. — In Western Central portion of the Territory; area, 3,300 square 
miles; three-fourths mountainous, and heavily timbered; about one-fourth 
superb grazing, with occasional valleys of great fertility; products, gold, 
silver, lumber, grain, hay, and cattle; Payette, Salmon, and Weiser Rivers; 
nearest railroad stations, Caldwell, Boise City, and Weiser, thirty to fifty miles 
south, on the Oregon Short Line. 

Cassia. — Southern Idaho; area, 5,100 square miles; about one-fourth 
mountainous, with a little timber; one-half undulating grazing lands of great 
excellence, and one-fourth level and very fertile farm lands; products, cattle, 
wool, grain, hay, vegetables, and hardy fruits; Snake and Raft Rivers; nearest 
railroad stations, Shoshone and Minnedoka, on the Oregon Short Line, fifty 
miles north. 

Custer. — Central Idaho; three-fourths mountainous, of which about one- 
fourth is heavily timbered; one-fourth good arable land; about one-half of 
mountain area is very fine grazing land; Salmon and Raft Rivers; products, 
gold, silver, lead, beef, wool, grain, vegetables, and lumber; Ketchum is the 
nearest railroad station, on the Oregon Short Line, sixty miles south. 

Idaho. — In Central portion of the Territory; area, 10,100 square miles; 
seven-eighths mountainous, half of which is very heavily timbered; one-eighth 
fine arable valley lands; generally elevated 4,000 to 8,000 feet above the sea; 
Salmon, Snake, Little Salmon, and Payette Rivers; the Oregon Short Line, 
seventy-five miles south, is the nearest railroad; products, gold, silver, copper, 
lumber, beef, butter, cheese, wool, pork, and hardy grains and vegetables. 

Kootenai. — The extreme northern county of Idaho ; area, 5,530 square 
miles ; nearly all mountainous and heavily timbered, although considerable 
surface is covered by lakes, and there are some small arable belts of wonder- 
fully rich soil ; products, lumber, gold, silver, lead, grain, and vegetables ; 
Clark's Fork, Pend d'Oreille, St. Joseph's, St. Mary's, Spokane, and Coeur 
d'Alene Rivers ; Northern Pacific and Coeur d'Alene Railways. 

Lemhi. — In Northeastern Idaho ; area, 4,470 square miles ; three-fourths 
mountainous ; one-fourth rolling and unexcelled grazing lands, with here and 
there a fine arable valley ; about 300,000 acres of farming lands; half of 



80 IDAHO. 

mountainous area, good grazing, and the remainder timber lands; productions, 
gold, silver, copper, lead, all hardy cereals, fruits, and vegetables, lumber, beef, 
wool, butter, and cheese ; Salmon, Lemhi, and Lost Rivers ; the nearest rail- 
road point is Camas Station, on the Utah & Northern, about seventy-five miles 
east. 

Latah. — New county formed in 1888 from Nez Perces and Shoshone Counties, 
Northern Idaho ; one-third magnificent rolling grain lands, producing without 
irrigation ; one-third mountainous and covered with dense forests of pine ; 
balance, fine grazing land ; well watered by Snake River and tributaries ; 
Oregon Railway & Navigation Railroad through west side ; one of 
the heaviest wheat producers in Idaho ; all other hardy cereals, fruits, and 
vegetables equally adapted ; considerable public land open to settlement. 

Nez Perces. — Northern Idaho; eastern one-third mountainous and splendidly 
timbered ; half of balance rolling pasture lands, and the remainder constitutes 
the banner wheat belt of Idaho; productions, grain, flax, all hardy fruits, 
vegetables, cattle, wool, and lumber; Snake (here navigable), Palouse, and 
Clearwater Rivers; the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company (operated by 
Union Pacific Company) touches the county on the west. 

Owyhee. — In Southeastern Idaho; area, 8,130 square miles; about one-half 
mountainous; balance hilly, and a great grazing region, with an occasional 
small valley; very little timber; the limited area of farming lands are very 
rich, producing ail grains, vegetables, and peaches, apples, etc., abundantly; 
Snake, Owyhee, Jordan, and Bruneau Rivers; gold, silver, cattle, and wool 
are the chief productions; Caldwell and Nampa, on the Oregon Short Line, 
fifty miles north, are the nearest railroad points. 

Oneida. — In Southeastern Idaho; one-third mountainous; one-third hilly, 
and the balance comparatively level arable land; all of the hilly and much of 
the mountain region afford excellent pasturage; enough timber for home use. 
Products: Grain, hay, horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs; Malad, Bear, and Snake 
Rivers; Utah & Northern and Oregon Short Line Railways. 

Shoshone. — In Northern Idaho; mainly mountainous and heavily timbered; 
very limited area of either agricultural or grazing lands; Clearwater, Coeur 
d'Alene, St. Joseph, and Lolo Rivers; gold, silver, lead, and lumber are the 
principal products; Cceur d'Alene Railway. 

Washington. — In Western Idaho; area, 3,000 square miles; three-fourths 
mountainous, much of which is well timbered, and one-fourth cultivatable and 
very fertile land; half of the mountain area is good grazing land; Weiser and 
Snake Rivers; products, grain, fruits (including peaches, apricots, etc.), vege- 
tables, butter, cheese, pork, wool, cattle, and lumber; the Oregon Short Line 
Railway runs through the southern portion. 



IDAHO. 
WEALTH AND POPULATION. 



81 



The assessed valuation of Idaho Territory, in 1888, was $21,288,392, but the 
real wealth is several times that amount, being officially estimated at $50,000,- 
000. The population is given by Governor Stevenson as follows: 



Counties. 


Population. 


Counties. 


Population. 


Ada 


11,000 
16,250 
5,750 
12,000 
4 250 
4,500 
4,000 
4,000 
1,430 




4,600 
9,630 




Latah 

Nez Perces 

Oneida 




5,000 


Bingham 


6,500 
3.850 




Shoshone 


8,000 






5,000 




Total 




105,260 





MISCELLANEOUS. 

Business Opportunities. — Money commands from 12 to 18 per cent, per 
annum; Idaho affords fine opportunities for business men of either large or 
limited means, who will be content with profits ranging from 15 to 25 per cent, 
interest on capital invested. Capital, directed by sagacity and enterprise, pos- 
sesses great advantages here as elsewhere; indeed, the new avenues being con- 
tinually opened by the rapid development of a bountiful new country, multiply 
the opportunities for its profitable employment. There is scarcely any repu- 
table vocation wherein the same capital and good management which insures 
success in Eastern communities will not yield greater returns here. Now, 
above all other periods, is the time to put money into commercial ventures, real 
estate, mines, or live stock, as the heavy immigration will enhance the value of 
such property to a degree not now possible to comprehend. It is unnecessary 
for any one to load himself down with the common necessaries of life, and 
transport them to such a region as Idaho. Outfitting houses of every nature, 
with such immense stocks of goods as are rarely found in cities of 20,000 
inhabitants in the East, are found in the various towns of Idaho. The ship- 
ments made by these firms are so large and judiciously handled that no indi- 
vidual can afford to bring articles of ordinary use from distant States. 

Employment and Wages. — There is a fair demand for mechanics and 
laborers at $3 to $5 per day for the former, and $2 to $2.50 for the latter. 
The great activity in building, farming, and mining assured for 1889 justifies 
the belief that at least 3,000 additional working-men can find employment in 
Idaho at nearly double the wages paid east of the Mississippi. The chance 
for these to invest their earnings and thus soon become possessors of good 
homes, or a competence in other ways, is probably better in Idaho and adjacent 
Territories than anywhere else under the sun. 

Lumber, Living Expenses, Etc.— Rough lumber costs $12 to $20 per 1,000 
feet; finishing lumber, $25 to $40; brick, $7.50 to $10 per 1,000; lime, 60 to 75 
cents per 100 pounds. Beef in quantity sells at 5 cents per pound; venison, 6 
to 7 cents; pork, 8 to 10 cents; fresh salmon, 8 to 10 cents; mutton, 6 to 10 
cents; flour, $3.50 per 100 pounds; wood, $3 to $5 per cord; coal, $8 to $9 per 
ton. Rents of cottages, 4 to 6 rooms, $10 to $20 per month. Board and 



82 



IDAHO. 



lodging at hotels, $9 to $14 per week; at boarding houses, $6 to $10 per week.> 
Livery, single-seated rig, per day, $4 to $6; double-seated, $6 to $10; saddle 
horses, per day, $3 to $4. All groceries, etc., about 10 percent, higher than 
east of the Missouri River. 

Following are prices of farm implements and animals in the principal 
settlements: 



Mowers $100 to $125 

Reapers 150 to 200 

Reapers and mowers combined. . 200 to 250 

Threshing machines 650 to 850 

Plows, 12-inch 12 to 15 

Gang plows 50 to 100 

Bain and Schuttler wagons 90 to 125 



Two-horse teams $150 to $225 

Mule teams 200 to 300 

Oxen, per yoke — 80 to 100 

Saddle horses, each 35 to 75 

Stock cattle, average 14 to 17 

Sheep r 2 to 3 




ILL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT. 



Any Ticket Agent in the United States or Canada, can sell Tickets, 
Check Baggage, and arrange for Pullman Palace Sleeping Car Berths, via 
the Union Pacific Railway. Do not complete your arrangements for a Western Trip until 
you have applied to the undersigned. Additional information, Maps, Time Tables, etc., will 
be cheerfully furnished. 



Baltimore, Md.— 217 East Baltimore St. 

D. E. BuRXEY,Traveling Passenger Agent. 
Boston, Mass.— 290 Washington Street. 

W. S. Condell, New England Freight 

and Passenger Agent. 
J. S. Smith, Traveling Passenger Agent. 

E. M. Newbegin, Traveling Freight and 
Passenger Agent. 

A. P. Masset, Pass, and Freight Solicitor. 
Buffalo, N. Y— 40y£ Exchange Street. 

S. A. Hutchison, Traveling Pass. Agent. 

Seth Caldwell, Trav. Freight Agent. 
Butte, Mont.— Cor. Main and Broadway. 

J. A. Lewis, General Agent. 
Cheyenne, Wyo. 

C. W. Sweet, Ticket and Freight Agent. 
Chicago, 111— 191 South Clark Street. 

W. H. Knight. General Agent Passenger 

and Freight Departments. 
T. W. Young. Traveling Passenger Agent. 
M. F. Moss, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
W. T. Holly, City Passenger Agent. 
J. A. Hughston, Eastern Trav. Frt. Agt. 
H. T. Stokes, City Freight Solicitor. 
H. G. Bird, City Freight Solicitor. 
Cincinnati, O-- 169 Walnut Street. 
J. D. Welsh, General Agent Freight and 

Passenger Departments. 
H. C. Smith, Traveling Freight and Pas- 
senger Agent. 
Cleveland, O.— Kennard House. 
A. G. Shearman, Traveling Freight and 

Passenger Agent. 
Columbus, O^— N. W. Corner Gay and 

High Streets. 
T. C. Hirst, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
Council Bluffs, la. 
W. H. Burns, GenT Agent, 506 First Ave. 
M. J. Greevy, Pass. Agent, U.P. Transfer. 
J. W. Maynard, Ticket Agent, U. P. 

Transfer. 
A. T. Elwell, City Ticket Agent, 507 

Broadway. 
Denver, Col.— 1703 Larimer Street. 

D. B. Keeler, Assistant General Freight 
Agent and General Agent Passenger 
Department. 

H. J. Rifenberick, Trav. Pass. Agent. 

F. B. Semple, City Passenger Agent. 
Des Moines, la.— 218 4th Street. 

E. M. Ford, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
Detroit, Mich.— 62 Griswold Street. 

D. \V. Johnston, Michigan Pass. Agent. 
Helena, Mont.— 28 North Main Street. 

A. E. Veazie. City Ticket Agent. 
Indianapolis, Ind — Room 3 Jackson PI. 

Geo. H.Hill, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
Kansas City, Mo.— 9th and Broadway. 

F. B. Whitney, General Agent Passenger 
Department and Asst. Gen. Freight Agt. 

J. B. Reese, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
T. F. Fitzgibbon, Traveling Pass. Agent. 
H. K. Proudfit, City Passenger Agent. 
T. A. Shaw, TicketAgent,1038 Union Ave. 
A. W. MiLLSPAUGH,Tkt.Agt., Union Depot. 
C. A. Whittier, City Ticket Agent, 528 
Main Street. 



London, Eng-. 

Thos. Cook <fc Son, Agts., Ludgate Circus. 
Los Angeles, Cal.— 51 North Spring St. 

John Clark, Agent Pass. Department. 
Louisville, Ky.— 346 West Main Street. 

N. Haight, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
Milwaukee, Wis. 

Geo. J. Needham, Traveling Passenger 
and Freight Agent. 
Montreal, Can.— 136 St. James Street. 

James Dunn, Canadian Freight and Pas- 
senger Agent. 
New York City.- 287 Broadway. 

R. Tenbroeck, General Eastern Agent. 

J. F. Wiley, Passenger Agent. 

F. R. Seaman, City Passenger Agent. 
Og-den, Utah.— Union Depot. 

C. A. Henry, Ticket Agent. 
Omaha, Neb.— 1302 Farnam Street. 

Harry P. Deuel, City Passenger and 
Ticket Agent. 

J. B. Frawley, Traveling Passenger Agt., 
9th and Farnam Streets. 

J. K. Chambers, Depot Ticket Agent. 
Philadelphia, Pa.- 133 South 4th Street. 

T. P. Vaille, Traveling Passenger Agent. 

L. T. Fowler, Traveling Freight Agent. 
Pittsburg, Pa.— 400 Wood Street. 

H. E. Passavant, Traveling Freight and 
Passenger Agent. 

Thos. S. Spear, Traveling Freight and 
Passenger Agent. 
Portland, Ore. —Cor. 1st and Oak Streets. 

A. L. Maxavell, General Passenger and 
Ticket Agent, O. R. & N. Co. 

B. Campbell, General Freight Agent, 
O. R. & N. Co. 

St. Joseph, Mo. 
W. P. Robinson Jr., General Freight 
and Passenger Agent, St. J. & G. I. R. R. 
St. Louis, Mo.— 213 North 4th Street. 
J. F. Aglar, General Agent Freight and 
Passenger Departments. 

E. R. Tuttle, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
A. W. Barbour, City Passenger Agent. 

C. C. Knight, Freight Contracting Agent. 
St. Paul, Minn.— 154 East 3d Street. 

F. L. Lynde, Traveling Passenger Agent. 
Sacramento, Cal.— 1018 2d Street. 

C. L. Hanna, Traveling Agent. 
Salt Lake City, Utah.— 201 Main Street. 

J. V. Parker, Division Freight and Pas- 
senger Agent. 

C. E. Ingalls, City Passenger Agent. 
San Francisco, Cal.— 1 Montgomery St. 

J. B. Kirkland, General Agent Passen- 
ger Departments. 

S. W. Eccles, General Agent Freight 
Department. 

W. G. Holcombe, Passenger Agent. 

J. F. Fugazi, Italian Emigrant Agent, 
5 Montgomery Avenue. 



J. A. S. REED, Cen'l Trav. Agent, 191 S. Clark St., Chicago. 

E. L. LOMAX, T. W. LEE, 

General Passenger Agent, Aasistant General Passenger Agent, 

OMAHA, NEBRASKA. 



w V 



u. «i o-v 



THE 






Original Inirantipitiil Line 

Carrying the United States Overland Mail for 

CHI2STA AND JAPAN, 



Passing through the most Fertile Portions of 

KANSAS, 

The most Productive Lands in 

NEBRASKA, 

Through the Romantic and Picturesque Scenery of 

COLORADO, 

And the Famous Grazing Lands of 

WYOMING. 

It is the most Direct Route to the "Vine-clad Hills and numer 
ous Health and Pleasure Resorts of 

UTAH. 






It is the Only Line passing through the Millions of Acres of 
Grazing, Farming, Fruit-raising and Mining Lands of 

DAHO. 

It is the Direct Route to the Agricultural, Grazing, Mining 
and Timber Lands of the States of 

OREGON 

AND 

WASHINGTON. 

It is also the "POPULAR ROUTE " to the Famous, yet 
practically unknown Country of 

ALASKA 

VIA 

PORTLAND. 



THOS. L. KIMBALL, General Manager. 

C. S. MELLEN, E. L. LOMAX, 

Traffic Manager. General Passenger Agent. 



A 



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